Intersecting Lines Book 2
by unicorn1111
Summary: Sequel to Intersecting Lines, but you don't need to have read that to enjoy this. Jane and Maura have accepted the invitation to stay in Los Angeles with the LAPD, now they have to deal with the risks and rewards of their careers while planning their life together. Cameos are to be expected and I hope to stick to a chapter posted every few days till complete
1. Chapter 1

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**01 Introduction**

Hi and welcome to Book Two of this story.

Intersecting Lines Book Two is a continuation of my first posted story, Intersecting Lines, which grew significantly larger than I had ever imagined when I started out; 100 chapters in all.

I realise that may seem a bit daunting to new readers so I thought I should provide a really short synopsis of Book 1 to help ease you into this story.

Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles, about seven months after moving from friends to lovers, have taken a secondment in Los Angeles to give their relationship a chance to grow far from Boston and the often hostile attention their relationship has brought; Maura to take over the Medical Examiner's role for the Los Angeles Police Department and Jane as a detective assigned to the LAPDs Major Crimes squad, under Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (The Closer).

There they meet Natalie Dearing, the LAPDs new media manager and her partner Anastasia Romanov, the newly assigned FBI Liaison Officer to the LAPD. During the next several months a friendship grows between them which in turn expands to take in Brenda Leigh Johnson and her close friend Sharon Raydor, the head of Force Investigation Division, the section that investigates officer-involved shootings.

With the help and active encouragement of all four, Brenda and Sharon build upon their friendship; both are single and lonely and are encouraged to act upon their potential as a couple, Sharon having previously been involved with a woman. Overcoming their misgivings and fears, Sharon and Brenda have embarked on a relationship while working together to investigate a series of suspicious shootings at the hands of two detectives, members of the LAPD's Robbery / Homicide squad.

During their time in Los Angeles, Jane and Maura were instrumental in closing several major cases, including a deranged sniper; a drug-cartel linked mass shooting and a car bombing at the LAPD Annual Ball. Following an invitation from Deputy Chief Johnson, they have decided to stay in Los Angeles and build a new life for themselves there.

Intersecting Lines Book 1 ended at midnight on New Year's Eve, when Jane proposed to Maura in front of their closest friends, Olivia Benson and Alex Cabot (Law and Order: SVU) visiting from New York, Anastasia and Natalie and Brenda and Sharon.

If you would like some backstory to Jane and Maura and Olivia and Alex getting together, please read my short story 'Hearts on the Shopping Block', which deals with that specific event.

Other stories dealing with the people of 'Intersecting Lines' can be found in my series of short stories posted as 'Intersecting Lines; Possession and Passion' and a new series I am about to post, 'Intersecting Lines: Drabbles'.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope you decide to join me on their journey.

Mike


	2. Chapter 2

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**02 Lunch**

Maura's viewpoint

Since taking up our secondment, now our permanent relocation, to Los Angeles my daily routine has changed quite significantly.

Once, as the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I was head of a small team and handling most of the work myself, a professionally and personally satisfying situation. Now, given Los Angeles County has more people than all of Massachusetts, the vastly larger volume of work generated means that I spend at least as much time on administration, personnel issues and mentoring my much larger staff as I do on actually conducting autopsies.

For a while I had found myself unconsciously delegating the most difficult and interesting cases to myself, until I realised that I was depriving my team of valuable experience. From that time on I had started passing difficult cases across to my assistant Medical Examiners, once I assessed they were ready to deal with the work and that I was confident in their level of detail and competency. I made sure that I assisted them with their first few, before stepping back and observing the next few difficult cases, discussing their findings afterwards and suggesting areas for improvement they should be conscious of.

I did not completely enjoy stepping back like that, but it was part of my role to be a mentor and encourage their professional and personal growth so I did it nonetheless. The exceptions were cases for Major Crimes and Force Investigation. Both dealt with high profile issues and deserved the best that my office could provide; the fact that I had a personal stake in both divisions was unspoken but appreciated by my team, for which I was grateful.

Another and far more welcome change to my daily routine is my schedule of lunches and other activities. Back in Boston I would either have lunch with Jane or if she was not available I would sit and eat in my office, usually while catching up on my professional reading or perhaps shopping online.

Now however my lunches were usually spent with Jane, sometimes alone and sometimes with our friends. Most often it would be my friend Natalie, the LAPD media manager, at other times her partner Anastasia, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's liaison officer to the LAPD would join us, Thursday's were a standing lunch date with the Head of Major Crimes, Brenda Leigh Johnson, while her partner Sharon Raydor of Force Investigation Division and I had an agreement to go running early Wednesday morning's before work, our schedule's permitting.

Natalie and I will often go shopping or take in a movie on the weekends if we are not otherwise catching up, though given Brenda and Sharon and Natalie and Anastasia seem to be entertaining us as often as we do them, our weekends are often busy socialising.

Every second Saturday Brenda and I get together for a few hours of tennis, an activity that Jane also sometimes partakes in, though under protest, she prefers time in the gym and martial arts sparring, understandable given the nature of her job. As Jane once stated she wanted to spend her exercise time doing things that helped her deal with criminals and as she had not yet found a need to serve and volley a criminal into submission, sparring it was.

Usually Anastasia would join her for which I was grateful. Jane often went toe to toe with her male colleagues; what she surrendered in height, reach, strength and body mass she made up for in skill and sheer aggression.

Natalie and I had surreptitiously made our way down to the LAPD gym one afternoon to watch them spar, curious to see them in training. Quite frankly the sight had terrified me, they fought with the same dedication they brought to everything else, brutally vicious in its intensity. I was just thankful that both Natalie and I had insisted early on in their training regimen on full contact safety equipment as any error could have seen them badly injured, especially when they started training with knives and other hand-to-hand weapons.

Several other officers there watching them had quietly explained to us that very few people were prepared to spar with them more than once, newcomers would come in, see them looking hot and sweaty and to be honest, quite frankly stunning and challenge them, thinking it was a way to get close to two beautiful women, only to find themselves on the wrong end of a embarrassing thrashing.

That night, I told Jane that I had witnessed her sparring session and asked her what was driving her and Anastasia to such extremes; she'd looked at me for a moment before replying that it was their job and they needed to stay sharp, same as I did, I had my journals, they had their sparring. I knew it wasn't the whole reason but chose not to pry.

Natalie told me several days later that she had also asked Anastasia, who had attempted to deflect her questioning, but had eventually admitted that following an incident where Natalie had been endangered by several gang members and Anastasia and Jane had been forced to fight to protect her, they had decided that if the same situation ever arose again, the need to protect Natalie or I, the situation would be over much more quickly.

Remembering back to that incident, not long after we had first moved to LA, I recalled that Jane and Anastasia had dealt with it quickly and efficiently, obviously they did not agree and the sessions such as we had witnessed were the result. While I sincerely hoped such an occasion would never arise, I almost felt sorry for anyone foolish enough to rouse their protective wrath.

Fortunately that requirement had not come up again, Natalie and I had avoided such situations and simply appreciated the ever more impressively fit and toned physiques of our lovers. Jane's dedication in the gym had paid obvious results; her body was an ever more impressive work of art that I had come to enjoy immensely.

In fact I drifted back to last night, where I had spent an inordinate amount of time paying attention to Jane's impressive muscular development, including her abdominal musculature. I'd always appreciated her body but now it was even more spectacular…

"Earth to Maura, hello, are you receiving our transmissions?" Startled, I looked up and focused on the smirking face of my friend Natalie across the lunch table. I must have 'zoned out' on her as Jane would put it.

"Oh, I am sorry Natalie, please excuse me, I let myself get distracted" If anything the smirk got wider.

"From the look on your face the distraction had something to do with Jane didn't it" I felt my cheeks heat slightly, certain I was blushing.

"Well…" From the look on her face I knew Natalie was seeing right through me. "Yes, it did"

"Thought so, don't worry, I'm appreciating Ana just as much as you are Jane; she's even more delicious than I was used to before she started working out. Jane's told her she wants to be in top condition for when you walk down the aisle, whenever that is"

I smiled at the thought, Jane had always been stunning, now she was even more so. I glanced down at the ring adorning my finger, my engagement ring. Jane had placed that ring on my finger a month ago, as midnight struck on New Year's Eve. The ring, a Georg Jenson creation, mixed red gold and yellow gold outer rings with a diamond-encrusted centre ring, locked together so that the three rings formed an unbreakable whole.

Jane had explained later that night that it symbolised two very different people, from different worlds, coming together and becoming one, bound by love and marriage; Jane Rizzoli, a closet romantic. She goes far out of her way to hide it but Jane has a strong sense of romance hidden deep within her, though she would probably suggest it's her Italian heritage, before turning it to a joke.

"Have you come to a decision? You weren't sure if you wanted quiet and intimate, or a full family wedding" She grinned at me. "Personally if I was you I'd probably just elope, disappear for a couple of weeks somewhere no one can find you and spend the whole time naked, just you and her" I smiled, the thought was very tempting.

"Why would you suggest we elope?"

"Well a small wedding works, your friends here, your friends from back in Boston, Alex and Liv from New York, its not going to be a production. That is unless you start inviting the extended Rizzoli family clan, according to Jane there's hundreds of them all up and down the east coast". She shuddered theatrically. "That would be a production. Better to skip that and just disappear" I looked across at her.

"What about Anastasia and you, what do you want for your wedding" She pursed her lips for a moment in thought.

"Small, Ana has no living relatives she's close to, some cousins but she hasn't seen them in years. It'd be just friends. You and Jane, Alex and Liv, Sharon and Brenda, some of the people we work with, my parents, they're kinda Ana's parents now, have been since her dad died. That'd pretty much be it. Oh yeah, my sister Lauren, she'd kill me if she wasn't there" I smiled.

"I would like to meet your sister and your parents one day, they seem lovely from what you and Ana have told us"

"We're hardly unbiased observers, but I think they'd love you too. They did mention last Christmas that they were kinda looking forward to seeing us married and having some grandkids they could spoil"

"Do you want to get married?"

"Hell yeah, it's just been inertia, we've been together for four years now, it feels like we already are, it's just a ceremony to make official how we already feel" She chuckled. "Ana's pretty pissed at Jane over her whole proposal thing though, reckons she's a hard act to follow" I smiled.

"Alex told me much the same a few days later; apparently Olivia was out of sorts for several days afterwards. When Alex finally confronted her about it, Olivia admitted that she was at a loss as to how to top Jane's proposal" I chuckled. "Alex told her that it did not matter when or where, as she put it, 'if you like it you should put a ring on it', or something to that effect" Natalie chuckled softly.

"Sounds like Alex. So you were going to talk to Jane about how long an engagement you were going to have. What's the verdict?" I smiled at the memory of that discussion.

"Jane, as you would expect, is happy with anything that makes me happy" Natalie rolled her eyes, making me smile even wider. "But she did agree with my suggestion that our engagement should last at least one year. Neither of us wants a winter wedding so it will probably be in either late spring or early summer next year"

"Nice, keep it small and intimate, then a long honeymoon somewhere far, far from work"

"I would prefer it to be small, just the people we care about" Natalie smiled, which led me into my next question. I really was being rather silly; I knew the answer before I asked but still... "Natalie, it is traditional to have bridesmaids, to stand with the bride. I was wondering if..."

"Yes" I looked up at her interruption.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Yes, Alex and I will be your bridesmaids, we'd love to" I blinked and then smiled.

"If you are willing to I would love to have you there with me"

"You don't really have a choice" I frowned; I wasn't following her and told her as much.

"Maura, Alex and I, we'd kill anyone who got between you and us on the day, so really there's no one else available, especially if we let it be known that anyone looking for the job is courting death. You're stuck with us both" I smiled as I felt something well up inside me.

"Oh Natalie, there is no one I would rather have than you and Alex..." I frowned at her. "You have already discussed it, Alex and you, you have!"

"We may have discussed it, the night Jane proposed and a few times since" She shrugged nonchalantly. "It's traditional to have your closest friends, so that's us" I nodded, trying to not show how much her words had affected me. Alex and Natalie were the closest thing to sisters I'd ever had, they were there for me, just as I was there for them. That truth humbled me a little.

"Traditionally, the bridesmaids were part of a group of up to ten people, in Roman times it was considered important to have that many to outsmart evil spirits bent on harm to the newlyweds, everyone would dress similarly to confuse the spirits and prevent them learning who was getting married" I shrugged a little sheepishly. "It is an old tradition, descended from superstition, but I would feel lost without you both there" Natalie grinned.

"We'll be there; as for any evil spirits, with that many cops there, well an arrest for public nuisance ought to take care of them" We shared a smile. "Now on to more important things; Alex and I will organise the bridal shower and bachelorette party, plus we're going to help you look for a wedding dress. Unless you're going to get one designed for you that is?" I shook my head.

"I really do not know; I rather like the idea of having something unique for our wedding" Natalie nodded.

"What about Jane, wedding dress or a suit?" I laughed at the image of Jane in a wedding dress, as Natalie's rueful chuckle joined me.

"Natalie, can you honestly see Jane in a traditional wedding dress?" She shook her head.

"Not a chance, though she'd look amazing. So that's settled, a suit; well that's the first thing taken care of"

"One down, innumerable more to go I suspect"

"You're only going to do this once Maura, so we've got to do it right"


	3. Chapter 3

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**03 Covert Investigations**

Brenda's viewpoint

Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson looked at her companions and sighed before she leaned back and ran her hands through her blonde hair. It was late and all she wanted to do was head home and relax after a long day, but there was still work to do. Looking at her companion, she spoke.

"So, do we have anything more that we can try and run down?" Special Agent Anastasia Romanov, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Liaison to the LAPD shifted in her chair and shrugged as she smiled somewhat ruefully.

"The Justice Department vouches for all of their people, as you'd expect. I can understand it from their perspective. How would you react if someone from Justice walked in and told you a member of your team was selling you out? You'd be a tad inclined to doubt them too" I frowned; I could hear the exasperation in her voice, something I could understand, it didn't stop the sigh that escaped my lips.

"I know, I know, it's just we've proven a link between Kennedy and Powell and the murder of at least three of Justice's protected witnesses" I shook my head. "They have to be getting info from someone inside Justice, what more do they need for heaven's sake?"

"We have a supposition honey, backed up by some strong circumstantial evidence, but nothing that conclusively says murder, especially in front of a jury" Commander Sharon Raydor, the LAPD's Force Investigation Division head smiled at Brenda. Despite the late hour she still looked her usual glamorously impeccable self, her dark suit unwrinkled and not a hair out of place. "It looks very strong to us, but not so much to anyone else" Sharon looked more than a little embarrassed. "Even my own initial investigations of their shootings cleared Kennedy and Powell" She snorted. "It's going to be very awkward when I have to turn around and have to explain that those shootings were dirty and I missed it"

"Sharon, you investigated and closed those cases on the basis of the information you had at the time" I leaned forward. "It was only when we went back and had a good look at all the evidence after Dimery's shooting that the Rodriguez and Garcia shootings looked suspect" Sharon shrugged.

"That's not what Chief Pope or the media will say" I smiled reassuringly, William Pope, the LAPDs Chief of Police was my problem.

"You leave Pope to me sweetie, as for the media, well that's Natalie's job" Anastasia smiled, it was her partner they were talking about after all.

"Nat and I have had a few discussions about this case since you briefed me in. She'll be there for you when you need her Sharon" Both women smiled at Ana, appreciating the offer before Sharon remembered something.

"That reminds me, we're going to need to brief someone else in, to do some of the leg work" Sharon frowned. "People see you or me chasing up files they're bound to notice, same with you Ana. We need someone to do the running around" Sharon paused. "Probably better if it's someone from Major Crimes, cops tend to remember a visit from a FID officer" I nodded, it was a good point.

"Probably either Sanchez or Jane" I thought about it for a bit. "Probably Jane, given Maura's already aware that we're looking into the case, so it kinda keeps it in the family" Ana and Sharon exchanged a look and Sharon nodded.

Might as well do it now, if she's still here" I thought about it for a moment.

"I understand Maura's doing an autopsy on a gang banger drive-by that'll keep her back late so Jane's not going anywhere until she's finished" Sharon and Ana both smiled, they understood Jane's protective instinct when it came to Maura, it was an essential part of her nature. I pulled out my phone and found Jane's number on speed dial, asking her to make her way down to Sharon's office.

A few minutes later Jane walked in, looking round before spotting us. Greetings were exchanged before we got her seated and I kicked it off.

"Jane, we asked you down here to bring you up to speed on a case Sharon and I have been investigating, we may need your help" Jane looked around at all three of us, then leaned forward, her elbows on her knees.

"Sure, what's up?" Sharon leaned forward, resting her elbows on her desk.

"It's an internal affairs investigation; looking into other officer's conduct. You've not worked those before have you?" Jane looked back and nodded once.

"Not officially, but I was part of an investigation into some crooked cops back home" She grimaced. "Back in Boston I mean. They were working for the Irish mob" I nodded.

"Ok, at least you have some idea of the constraints we're working under. This one's tricky" I glanced at Sharon and she took up the story.

"Force Investigation was called in to investigate an Officer Involved Shooting by two Robbery / Homicide officers, Sergeant Gerry Kennedy and his partner Detective Aiden Powell. Following an anonymous tip they'd gone to the residence of a suspect, Robert Dimery where, according to the testimony of both officers Dimery pulled a gun on them and they shot in self-defence" Jane raised an eyebrow.

"The fact were having this discussion tells me something's off" Sharon and I both nodded before Sharon continued.

"The evidence didn't stack up. Maura's autopsy suggested that Dimery was fatally shot while crouched down partly facing away from the shooter, the other shots hit him as he was falling" Jane nodded but stayed silent. "The weapon that Dimery had supposedly pulled was a .22 handgun, one that seemed out of character for a supposed suspect in a number of violent crimes. It turned out that Dimery did in fact have a number of other weapons, including an Uzi hidden in the unit, plus a bulletproof vest" Jane looked interested but said nothing.

"Ballistics found that none of Dimery's weapons matched any of the forensics at the crimes Robbery / Homicide was investigating. In addition the .22 was poorly maintained, unlike the rest of the weapons in the apartment" Jane nodded. "The weapon did however turn up in our records as belonging to an owner killed in a robbery gone wrong eighteen months prior. The weapon was never found" Jane's eyes narrowed as she took that in.

"Who investigated that robbery?" I shared a knowing look with Sharon; Jane was always quick off the mark.

"It was a Robbery / Homicide case" Sharon smiled at Jane's insight. "The lead officer was one Sergeant Gerry Kennedy" Jane nodded slowly and sat back.

"Sorry, go on" Sharon nodded.

"There were enough inconsistencies that we couldn't close the Dimery case so I listed it as an open finding and there it lay, but Brenda and I discussed it and we decided to keep digging, seeing what we could find" I leaned forward, taking up the story.

"We worked out that Dimery was apparently in Witness Protection, Maura found evidence of significant cosmetic surgery to change his appearance. We later confirmed this with the Justice Department" Jane nodded at my words, if Maura was certain of something work-related you could take that to the bank, or the judge.

"So it looks like something, but it could also be a coincidence" At that Ana smiled and joined the conversation.

"Once yes, but three times?" Jane's head swung to look at her, her eyes widening in surprise.

"You're shitting me right?" Sharon shook her head sadly.

"Unfortunately no, we looked back into Detective Kennedy's past and identified two other OIS investigations where Kennedy had shot and killed suspects who apparently pulled weapons on him. Both had been identified by anonymous tip offs" Jane's mouth twisted into a grimace.

"Once might be a coincidence…"

"But three times, no way" I shook my head. "Justice confirmed that both of the other victims were also in WitSec" Ana took up the story.

"According to Justice, all three were former members of the Sinaloa Cartel; they each turned over against the cartel and were given new identities here in Los Angeles" She shrugged. "It's a huge city with a sizeable Latino population so it's easy for people to disappear here" Jane rubbed her hands together as she thought it through, then glanced up at me.

"Ok, I can see why you're looking into it, what do you need me to do?" I smiled at her direct approach, that was quintessentially Jane.

"At this point it's a bit of a precaution; we may need you to look into things for us. People will talk if Brenda and I are asking; same if it's the FBI liaison. FID people get noticed so better someone from Major Crimes, particularly if they're new and don't have a profile" Jane nodded, idly toying with the scar on one palm, I'd noticed she did it unconsciously when she was stressed or thinking.

"Sure, whatever you need. So where do we go from here?" Sharon took up the thread.

"Well, we're trying to work out how they got identified in the first place, Justice's WitSec program security's pretty tight but somehow three people all got found and killed" Jane looked thoughtful, her eyes focused on something far away, a memory.

"Yeah, that's what we found back in Boston. We had a WitSec-related case too and Justice didn't want to talk. It has to be an inside job" Ana smiled.

"Yeah, we were discussing that back before you arrived, though Justice vouches for all their people, says it can't be there" There were frowns all round, though I inwardly smiled as I noticed Jane frowning too. She was too good a detective to not get sucked in by a case like this, something she could sink her teeth into.

"What's the story on his partner, Powell?" Sharon nodded.

"Powell's had two OIS during the period we're looking at, but backed up by the info from Kennedy they were both originally signed off as righteous shootings; self-defense" Jane sat there for a moment, thinking hard.

"So all of Kennedy's shootings were of former Sinaloa members" I nodded as she pursed her lips. "Back in Boston, if lots of people who ratted out a gang started turning up dead, we'd be looking at someone inside the gang taking care of business. In this case you're suggesting Kennedy's doing it for them…" She looked round and Sharon nodded. "…then maybe they're getting him to clean up some of their other messes as well. "You might want to go back and have another look at Powell's OIS again" Sharon and I exchanged glances as Ana replied.

"There's no love lost between the cartels and people they consider traitors, it's certainly true they'd like them dead" Jane was about to say something when her phone pinged, announcing a text message. Pulling it out with an apologetic look Jane scrolled down and smiled.

"Maura's finished up so she's ready to go" She looked round at us. "We have an appointment to go look at a house" I nodded as Sharon spoke.

"Find anything suitable so far?" Jane and Maura, since their decision to relocate permanently out to Los Angeles had been looking for a new house to buy, so far it had been more than a month and nothing suitable had been found.

"No, there's either something wrong, it's too far from work, too big for us, needs too much work to bring it up to standard or it doesn't meet Maura's criteria" Sharon frowned.

"What criteria are they?" Jane shrugged a little sheepishly.

"Proximity to a good child care facility, quality schools, that sort of thing" She smiled softly. "Maura likes to plan ahead" I smiled as well, that was so very her.

"Well better to have everything just as you want it, heaven knows you don't want to move more often than you have to" She sighed.

"No argument here. I kinda like where we are, it'd mean we only have to ship the rest of our stuff from Boston" Sharon looked over from where she was locking things up.

"I take it there's a problem?"

"Yeah, the owner doesn't want to sell; a shame really, I like the place we're in now" I had to agree, their current house was beautiful and airy, it was a lovely home for them both and a wonderful home to raise children. I smiled to match the encouraging words.

"Well this one might be the one, if not, well the home you have now is still there for as long as you need to lease it" Jane nodded.

"No argument there" She checked her watch again. "Time I was gone if we're to meet the agent" I checked my own watch, it was after seven.

"Sounds like a good plan, we can catch up in a few days when we have more" We all stood and gathered our things preparatory to leaving, before Jane spoke again.

"I might make a suggestion" At Jane's comment my head came up.

"Hmm?"

"The investigation I was involved in, back in Boston? I was brought in because they thought someone in the BPDs Evidence area was selling weapons marked for destruction back out onto the street; turns out a cop working there was selling them back to the mob. The kicker was he wasn't the only dirty cop involved. You might want to look a bit wider than just Kennedy and Powell" I glanced over at Sharon, to see her eyebrows rise at the thought. I chewed it over for a moment then looked back at Jane.

"It's possible" Jane nodded towards Ana.

"Get Ana to run all the Robbery / Homicide OIS names through the Witsec database, you might turn up some more" I thought that over and exchanged another glance with Sharon, who nodded slowly. I frowned.

"You think that's possible?" Sharon shrugged.

"I suppose it could be" Jane stood there, a rueful expression on her face.

"It's been my experience that where's there's one rotten apple, there's usually more"


	4. Chapter 4

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**04 Home Invasion**

Brenda's viewpoint

Another day, another call out, it was early evening in Santa Clarita and we were responding to a call to a multiple homicide at what looked uncomfortably like a home invasion gone wrong.

We'd had a spate of these across LA, targeting wealthy members of the city's Asian community, five houses had now been hit by a group of men wearing ski masks, but definitely identified as Asian.

In each case they'd been quick, brutal and effective, stealing money, jewelry and expensive items like iPads, laptops and such. The usual pattern was they were in and out in only a couple of minutes.

Commander Taylor's people in Robbery / Homicide had been investigating them and getting nowhere when the fourth house had been hit; Pope had pulled Taylor off the case and assigned it to Major Crimes, once again doing wonderful things for relations between both squads.

We'd started going over all the evidence, looking for patterns and connections between the victims, all of whom were reasonably wealthy, successful families, not super rich but the sort of immigrant success stories that people talk about when they think of the American dream.

The third attack had shown an uptick in violence. The oldest daughter of the family was a stunningly attractive young woman who probably should have been a model but had been studying to be a CPA to join her father's accounting firm.

She'd been pack-raped in her own bedroom, leaving her completely traumatised. It seemed that the rape had been a spur of the moment thing as none of her attackers had been wearing a condom, leaving plenty of DNA evidence, plus a young woman desperate to make sure she hadn't conceived.

Testing had identified five different DNA markers from the rape kit results, unfortunately none of them were in the CODIS database, so we were still chasing clues as to their identity.

The fourth house to be hit had been worse still, they'd been much rougher with the family, hitting the father across the head with a hard object when he'd tried to stop them raping his wife and fifteen year old daughter, unfortunately the hit to the head had started a major internal bleed and he'd died at the scene. We were now hunting a group of killers.

The crime lab had managed to narrow down the weapon to a hard, tapering cylindrical object, possibly wooden. The general consensus was it was possibly a martial arts weapon, tying in with the theory that an Asian crime gang was involved.

Now we were out for a fifth attack and it bore most of the same hallmarks. The front door smashed in with a battering ram like most of the other attacks and a delivery van spotted leaving the scene by a curious neighbor, the same as the second and fourth attacks.

What wasn't the same were the dead bodies throughout the house. The entire family was dead, along with a blood trail leading outside. The first LA County Sherriff's deputy's on the scene had checked that everyone was dead and then backed out, leaving the scene for us.

Flynn and Provenza had been the first to arrive and had things well in hand by the time the rest of us arrived, with Flynn bringing us up to speed as he led us through the house.

"Chief, it appears that when the attackers smashed the door in, the father was in the bedroom, he must have grabbed a shotgun from the closet and moved towards the door" Flynn nodded to the doorway. "He caught one attacker as he came through the bedroom door and shot him" He indicated a sizeable blood spatter across the wall opposite the door. "Based on the size of the spatter, if the suspect wasn't dead immediately, he won't live long" I nodded, a shotgun blast to the torso at that range would blow a significant hole through anyone not wearing a vest. Flynn gestured further down the hall.

"Looks like the father, Eddy Shimamura, moved towards the front of the house and got a second shot off, wounding a second attacker" He indicated a second, much smaller blood spatter. Sanchez nodded.

"Gutsy play, take on who knows how many with a shotgun" Jane looked up from where she was kneeling, examining the mess on the wall and nodded.

"The local Asian community's scared shitless over these invasions; apparently their media's been full of it, especially the rapes. Figure the father wanted to be prepared to defend his family" I nodded.

"Understandable reaction, but it appears to have cost them their lives. Please continue Lieutenant" Flynn nodded and moved down the hall.

"It then appears that another suspect came around that corner behind him and fired a shot, probably a 9 mil or maybe a 45 based on the entry wound in the back, knocking Mister Shimamura to the ground" He gestured to where I could see a body lying there in a wide pool of blood. "Then at least two people stood there and pumped shots into the father, as you can see they were close enough to be accurate"

Walking closer, I could see he was right, most of the shots were in the shoulders, neck and the back and side of the head, at least half a dozen shots from a 9 mm and what might have been a 45. I looked up at the rest of the team.

"A lot of anger here gentlemen" There were shoe prints tracked through the blood, more evidence to be added to the collection, together with the shell casings lying around. "What happened then?" Provenza gestured towards the kitchen.

"Best guess so far is that they herded the rest of the family into the kitchen, before someone, probably one of the people who shot the father, based on the bloody shoe prints, walked over and shot the family one by one.

I could see an older woman, probably the mother, two teenage girls and an elderly woman, an aunt or grandmother perhaps, all lying around the kitchen and dining room, it looked like the girls had been shot first, they hadn't had time to run, then the mother, who had made it into the dining room before a shot to the head killed her. The grandmother had tried to run to the back door, the first shot hadn't killed her, the blood trail behind her showed she'd dragged herself a few feet before a second shot to the head had ended her attempt at life. Sanchez shook his head, his expression hard.

"Killing four women in cold blood, that's stone" David knelt down and examined the floor.

"Chief, drops of blood here, tracking with the foot prints, figure the one who did this might have been the second person hit by the father" Provenza nodded.

"The father wings him, not enough to kill him, but enough to hurt, then the wounded suspect, in a rage, takes it out on the family" Flynn nodded in agreement.

"WeI'll get an alert out to all hospitals and medical centers looking for anyone admitted for treatment for a shotgun wound" Tao looked up from where he had been examining the floor near the door.

"I think we'll only find the second suspect. Based on the amount of blood on the wall and these smears by the door where they probably dragged him out, the father's first target isn't going to live long" I nodded as I looked around. Outside I could see the team from the Medical Examiner's office outside but no Maura. I turned to Jane.

"Detective Rizzoli, do you know where Doctor Isles is? She's normally not this late" Jane nodded.

"Yeah, she and Natalie were out in Santa Monica looking at houses when the call came through, they should be here soon" I nodded, despite how it felt at times, we were allowed to have a life.

"OK everyone. Lieutenant Tao, please oversee SIS's work here at the scene, there's a lot of evidence here and I don't want anything missed. Lieutenant Flynn, if you could get that alert out to all hospitals and medical centres I'd appreciate it" They nodded. "Lieutenant Provenza, could you please interview the neighbor who spotted the van departing the scene, Detective's Sanchez and Rizzoli, could you please start checking with the other neighbors to see if they have anything" I looked round.

"Sargent Gabriel, with me please"

I suddenly looked up as the growl of a high-powered engine grew quickly louder, to see Maura's silver Mercedes convertible pull up across the road, Maura and Natalie stepping out, neither of them in their normal work attire. Maura was wearing a burgundy satin top, a leather jacket with a matching black leather pencil skirt that highlighted her shape and a pair of black patent leather strappy heels that had to be at least five inches high. Natalie was equally stunning, wearing a red blazer over a white dress that ended above the knees with a bold black floral print and red spike heels. They quickly made their way over to the house past the waiting media and through a curious throng of deputies who turned to watch them as they passed.

"Evening Chief, sorry we're late" Maura was equally apologetic.

"Good evening Chief Johnson, my apologies for the delay" I looked at them as Maura fitted shoe covers and pulled on gloves at the door.

"I heard you were in Santa Monica, how did you get here so quickly for heaven's sake?" Natalie nodded at Maura.

"It turns out Maura's Mercedes isn't just for show and she did race car driver's lessons for a reason" I caught Jane's grin out of the corner of my eye as Maura's cheeks suddenly bloomed red. David shook his head.

"How did you not get pulled over on the way?" Maura's blush deepened as Natalie smiled.

"We did" I smothered a smile as David grinned openly.

"You badged your way out of it didn't you?" If Maura's blush deepened any further she'd be redder than her top.

"Well, it was an urgent call to a crime scene so Natalie insisted that making all possible speed was justified" I smirked.

"How fast were you going when you were pulled over?" She looked around at our expectant faces and blushed again.

"I was careful to stay within the capabilities of both the car and my abilities as a driver and traffic on the freeway was light..." I raised one eyebrow as Maura trailed off, then waited her out, it didn't take long. "We were travelling at approximately 105 miles per hour at the point Officer Whittaker commenced his pursuit on the San Diego Freeway" Now it was my jaw that dropped. What was that about books and their covers...? David was equally surprised, before composing himself.

"So he just let you go after you badged him?" Maura shook her head.

"He recognised us from the LAPD Ball some months back and after we explained where we were going and why he told us to try and keep it under 80 from then on" Natalie jumped in.

"He also called it in so we got here without being pulled over again"

I noticed Jane was wearing a proud smile as I looked away before I let my own grin out; Sharon was going to love this story. Finally I sobered and gestured back towards the house.

"Regrettably there's a family inside that needs your attention Doctor Isles" Maura nodded and hefted her bag, nodding at me and sharing a look with Jane before making her way to her team. I stood there for a moment as everyone headed off to do their jobs before turning to Natalie.

"105? Really?" She smiled proudly.

"Yep, she's actually very good, I wasn't scared at all, but that's Maura for you, a bundle of surprises" I nodded. It pretty much summed her up. I sighed; back to business.

"It certainly looks like the same home invasion crew we've been chasing, except this time they killed the entire family" Her face hardened as she nodded. "It also looks like two of the suspects were hit with shotgun blasts, one seriously. We need to get that out to the media, the usual call for witnesses or potential leads on the suspects"

Natalie nodded, taking it all in. Since she'd come on board she'd been a blessing, keeping the media off our backs and improving our relations with them no end. After hearing me out and making sure I'd finished she spoke.

"The Asian-language media's going nuts as you know Chief; this latest one's going to send them into spasms" I nodded ruefully. Pope was already catching shit from the Mayor's office over this and it rapidly made its way from his office to mine without losing any of its smell. I looked at her and raised an eyebrow, waiting to hear what she had to say.

"I know you don't really like media interviews, but we may need to consider a couple of sit down interviews with some of the biggest Asian-language media, trying to keep a lid on it" I frowned, she was right, I really don't like media interviews, they have a habit of getting off track. Natalie saw it and smiled, putting her hand on my forearm.

"It'd be fairly tightly scripted with plenty of prior agreements with them about what you can and can't talk about it, but one on one should be easily to control" She shrugged. "It's also easier for your natural personality to come out, less of the stressful circus that a media conference usually degenerates into about these sorts of crimes" I felt my mouth twist in annoyance; I really didn't like dealing with the media. Finally I sighed.

"You really think it'll help?" She shrugged.

"I won't lie, it won't make the problem go away, especially if we get another dead family like this, but it'll slow down the panic and buy us some time" I grimaced, Natalie never pulled punches when it came to her job, never sugar-coated it. Still, I trusted her the same way I trusted my team, she wouldn't suggest anything if she didn't think it was necessary.

"Ok, set them up, please no more than three?" She nodded. "And let Chief Pope know I'm going to take them, it might make him back off for a bit" She smiled, a little sardonically.

"Yeah right; as if. I'll let the Mayor's media people know as well, that might get them to stop leaning on Pope so hard, which would make all our lives easier"

"We live in hope Natalie, we live in hope" She smiled and stepped back, leaving me to get back to my job as she headed out to the media crews standing beyond the police tape to do hers. Speaking of which I turned to David who was waiting patiently.

"Sergeant Gabriel, would you please check with the delivery company, check if any of their vans were reported stolen. If we find that van there's a good chance we'll find one of our suspects, given the amount of blood back there" David nodded, taking notes as I continued.

"Also see if we can pull any traffic surveillance tapes leading out of the area, they might give us some better information about where they headed and possibly a license number. I paused for a moment to think of anything else when I heard two deputies speaking a few feet away on the other side of a hedge.

"Holy shit Danny, did you see the ass on that blonde in the leather skirt, betcha she'd be a fantastic fuck"

"Nah, too stuck up for my tastes, gimme the one in the red, she looks like she'd be plenty of fun"

My ears pricked up at the conversation. I disliked sexist comments at the best of times; I'd heard enough of them in my career, often from criminals who thought with their dick, not their brain.

In this case it was a pair of deputies who really should have known better. They were just fortunate Jane hadn't heard them, or Anastasia if she'd been here, both of them would have sorted them out quick smart. The deputies hadn't finished.

"Suit yourself; I'd happily fuck both of them, maybe both at the same time, that'd be a blast"

"Yeah, a blonde sandwich"

I caught David looking at me with a carefully neutral expression, as he waited for my reaction.

"They both look like they need a good meal, too skinny for my taste, feed them some of my prime A-grade American beef"

"I think one's a lezzie though, I heard she's married or something to a dyke cop" I felt my temper starting to burn.

"That's a crying shame, maybe she needs a good fuck from a real man, show her what she's missing" I could see David cringe at their words as I moved to step around the bushes. "She just needs a taste of my dick to fuck her right"

"Excuse me Deputies, may I have a word please?" I saw them both jump a little at my words, then turn. The slightly older one, whose name tag read Kelly, looked me up and down and smiled a bit smarmily.

"Sure Miss…" I smiled.

"Johnson" He started to say something when I cut him off. "Deputy Chief Johnson actually" I saw his expression abruptly change, trepidation replacing the smile, giving me a small, dark pleasure. "I couldn't help but overhear your so very enlightened comments about several of my LAPD colleagues"

"Uh…yeah" I glanced across to the younger one, Harris, who was looking apprehensive.

"We didn't mean anything Chief" I smiled as I saw the other deputies nearby listening in.

"Oh good, because I was concerned that your comments about their sexuality might have reflected some kind of deep seated hostility to gays an all" They both shook their heads as I continued. "But that's not correct is it?" Harris was marginally quicker.

"No ma'am, not me"

"Nope, got no problem with gays Chief"

"Excellent, so when I'm sitting down with Sherriff Baca next to discuss the current spate of hate crimes against gays, I know just the officers to recommend to go undercover to catch those people responsible for the recent spate of homophobic bashings" Both of them suddenly looked very awkward. I could see their colleagues nearby trying very hard to look nonchalant, though they were patently hanging on every word. "I'll be sure to mention both of y'all to the Sherriff. I'm sure a pair of fit, handsome young men like yourselves will do a convincing job, especially wearing leather vests and chaps with your butts hanging out, trolling the streets and bath houses posing as gay rent boys" Both of them had gone very pale, as I heard a hastily stifled laugh from another deputy who quickly turned away.

"Um, Chief…"

"Of course, if you were to make yourselves very, very scarce very quickly, I might just forget this little conversation took place and your names might be a little hard to remember" I saw them both start nodding. "Of course, one more inappropriate word about any of my female colleagues and I'm sure my memory would sharpen up just fine"

"Sorry ma'am" Kelly nodded as Harris started backing away.

"Uh yeah, sorry Chief, we'll just head…" they both turned and rapidly disappeared off the property as I stood there watching them as David's voice came to me, soft enough that no one else could hear.

"I didn't know you had a meeting with the Sherriff scheduled?" I turned to smile at David, keeping my voice low as well.

"I don't, but they don't know that, now do they?" He smiled at me and changed the subject as I stood there. What I'd done had been a bit petty, but it'd felt good and I was sure the word would get around.

"Now then David, where were we?"


	5. Chapter 5

****Intersecting Lines Book 2****

**05 Relaxing at home**

Jane's viewpoint

I was home, having beaten Maura in for a change, sprawled on the sofa watching some forgettable college basketball game when Maura made it through the door, still looking fantastic after a full day's work in a geometric print dress, a complimentary jacket and a pair of red and black Loubouton peep slings with five-inch heels.

As I watched she strolled into the room, dropped her two thousand dollar Prada bag on the table before walking over to the sofa, leaning over to get a welcoming kiss before collapsing at the other end of the sofa with a sigh. Looking up at me she lifted one leg up and held it out towards me for inspection. Not that I minded, I like her legs.

"My feet hurt" I tried to smother the smile that the slight whine in her voice threatened to bring out as I turned the television off.

"Well, you're the one who wears those heels all the time" I got one of her mock scowls as she lowered her leg back down.

"I thought you liked me in heels" I smiled sympathetically, carefully keeping my amusement hidden.

"I do, I love what they do to your legs, but there's a price to be paid" Maura looked up at me with a pout forming; the little tease knew exactly what that pout did to me.

"So I should stop wearing them?" I smiled.

"I wouldn't go that far" Maura's pout slipped into a tiny frown, she was having difficulty following me.

"But you are saying if I do not want the problem I should stop wearing them?" I smiled even wider.

"I didn't say that, just that there was a price to be paid" She raised an eyebrow at me.

"So what exactly are you suggesting Jane?"

"That you do what you wanted to do anyway and put your foot up here in my lap where I can work on it"

She smiled and did just that as I pulled off the source of her problems, marvellin once again at how something that makes her look so good can be so hard on her. I'd started with her left foot, massaging deep, working my fingers into her instep as she relaxed back into the sofa, her eyes dropping closed as my ministrations pulled a collection of little sighs and gasps from her, much to my amusement; normally those sort of noises signify the start of something else.

"I must be so whipped, to do this without an argument" I got a smile though Maura's eyes remained closed.

"It is just you showing how much you care" I smiled in return, kneading her instep.

"I bet Ana and Liv don't do this"

"Do not be so sure about that Jane" I looked up to see her watching me through heavy-lidded eyes. "I cannot be exactly sure if either gives foot massages, but I know both do equally wonderful things" I cocked an eyebrow.

"Like what exactly?" Maura gave a low groan as I worked on one particularly troublesome area, before looking at me again with a small smile playing.

"Oh, various things" I moved up past the ball of her foot and started moving her toes, working away at the base of each, making her squirm a little as her eyes dropped shut again as I prodded at her comment.

"C'mon Maura, you can't say something like that without finishing it. What sort of things?" She shrugged gently, her eyes still closed.

"Pedicures, manicures, painting toenails, all sorts of massages, facials, shaving legs, oh so many things" I had to bite down hard on an evil snigger. Oh this was too good an opportunity to waste; I had to get her to spill who does what, I wanted the ammunition to use later when I needed it. I tried to go for innocent curiosity to get Maura to cough up the dirt.

"Oh really, what does Liv do?" Maura smiled gently as her eyes remained closed.

"She loves to paint Alexandra's toenails. Alex almost never wears open-toed or strappy shoes to work, so normally only Olivia gets to see them. Alex used to only use reds or pinks, but Olivia loves painting them bright colours" I frowned, that didn't seem very likely.

"Liv? We're talking Olivia Benson, New York's most badass SVU cop?" Maura opened her eyes and smiled at me.

"Unless you know another Olivia Benson, yes Jane, that Olivia" I nodded slowly, filing the info away as Maura continued, her eyes drifting closed again. "Blues, greens, yellows, purples, the whole spectrum; given the nature of the work Olivia does, I could well believe that it is a form of escapism, bringing some brightness and colour into her day" I nodded again, that made sense. Homicide was bad enough; no way could I do Special Victims.

"Yeah, I could see that" Maura relaxed and settled back even further into the cushions as I continued working my way over her left foot and ankle.

"The fact that it is quite a personal service is simply a manifestation of her love for Alexandra" I nodded as I thought it over.

"I can see that too" I felt a small knot under the skin and concentrated on it for a few seconds, drawing a slight moan from Maura and a smile from me at the sound. "What else does she do?"

"If she has time, she will give Alex both a manicure and a pedicure, particularly before she paints her nails" Maura had arranged a pedicure for me several times over the years, I'd always felt a little self-conscious sitting back having someone working away on my feet, it felt a little, I dunno, intimate.

Thinking about it though I could imagine Liv doing that for Alex, she worshipped the ground Alex walked on; of course Alex did the same for Liv; they really were a match made in heaven. Mind you that was only fair; they'd gone through more than a decade of hell to get where they were now. I realised Maura was still going.

"Apparently Olivia also gives the most amazing scalp massages; Alex has raved about them more than once" I smiled, thinking of Liv standing behind Alex massaging her scalp. Alex had lovely hair, especially since she'd let it grow out, if it was anything like Maura's, all soft and thick and amazing, I could imagine sinking your hands into it would be great. I picked up the slight wistful tone in Maura's voice and decided then and there that I should try and do that for Maura sometime soon. I swapped feet, pulling off the right foot's wicked heel and starting working away on it, the muscles there just as tense as her left had been.

"I wonder what Alex does for Liv?" Maura smiled lazily at me, relaxing already, the work-induced tension melting away.

"As you know, Olivia loves coffee, in fact she is almost as coffee addicted as you are" I glanced up to see a tiny grin, Maura teasing me again. "Following a discussion with Anastasia, Alex has undertaken a coffee barista course that would see her employed as a professional at many top cafes and then has purchased a professional coffee machine so that she can make quality coffee for Olivia whenever needed. If Olivia is called out at night or early in the morning, Alex will get up to ensure that Olivia has a quality cup of strong, gourmet coffee to be certain Liv is awake before she leaves"

"That's pretty cool"

"Indeed. She also regularly massages Olivia's back, it was injured some years ago and plays up from time to time, they have found that regular massage minimises both the reoccurance of the injury and the pain that accompanies a reoccurance" I nodded slowly, that was pure Alex, anything for Liv. Besides, whatever she set her mind to, she'd do with the same single-minded devotion she brought to bear on anything important.

"What about Ana, what stuff does she do for Nat?" Maura smiled softly, the massage was working, pulling the day's stresses out and helping her to relax.

"Anastasia loves Natalie's legs, she regularly offers to shave Natalie's legs in the shower, then moisturise them so they remain soft and smooth" I felt my eyebrows rise. Ana did that? "Natalie says they are one of Anastasia's favourite parts of her body; she apparently loves to run her hands and tongue along them when they are fooling around" I pulled a face, not really meaning it though.

"That's almost shading into TMI territory there Maura" I had to silently agree though, Nat had beautiful long legs, almost everything she wore emphasised them. I wondered if that was because she knew Ana liked them so much. I smiled a little; I could see her doing that just for Ana, those two were another matched set, each meant the world to the other. That didn't mean I wasn't going to use this stuff sooner or later, this ammunition was too good to waste.

"Anything else she does for Nat?"

"Apparently she gives excellent facials; Natalie learnt to do them when she was younger, working at a department store as a cosmetician while going through college. She in turn taught Anastasia who now does them for her" I could imagine that she'd do good ones too, Ana was a perfectionist, anything she did; she did to the very best of her ability.

"In fact Natalie has suggested that I ask her to do one for me" I nodded. If Maura asked her, she'd get one as good as any you'd get in any spa in Los Angeles. Ana really cared for Maura, treating her like the sister she'd never had before becoming part of Nat's family. I completely understood that too, I felt the same way about Natalie, she was someone I felt was part of my family. In fact I felt the same way with Alex too, Nat and Alex were like younger sisters to me, to be loved and protected and taken care of.

With Liv and Ana it was different; the relationship there was a lot more like brothers. Each of them was there for me and I was there for them; that's just the way it was and always would be. I hadn't told Maura yet but I wanted them both to stand with me at the wedding. I knew Alex and Natalie would be Maura's bridesmaids, just as I wanted Liv and Ana as my…groomsmen? Grooms women? Whatever, I wanted them there with me on one of the most important days of my life.

I'd paused while thinking and I felt Maura's foot flex under my fingers, looking up to see her watching me, her eyes soft and gentle.

"Where were you Jane?" I smiled and resumed working over the muscles around her ankle.

"Daydreaming, sorry" I changed the subject. "Any idea what Nat does for Ana in return?"

"Natalie, as you would imagine would do anything for Anastasia, well anything but cook" We shared a chuckle, Nat was pretty good at just about anything she turned her hand to, she'd once described it by saying that while she may not be the best in everything she did, she'd be competent at almost anything. That didn't extend to cooking however; she wasn't a danger in the kitchen, but compared to Ana and Sharon, or Maura for that matter, all of whom could cook professionally, Nat's cooking was barely average at best, something that frustrated the hell out of her and provided Ana with an unending source of amusement and teasing.

"Natalie will regularly provide a professional level facial and full body treatment to Anastasia, she has a lovely skin tone and Natalie works hard to keep it that way" Maura smiled. "Natalie has said that this way both of them get to enjoy the benefits" I smirked, that sounded so like Nat, hiding her devotion to Ana under a smart ass exterior, not that we didn't know the truth.

Both couples were matches made in heaven, deeply in love, it was great to see it, it was like looking in a mirror and seeing ourselves there, Maura was my world and she'd made it clear that she felt the same about me. For a moment I basked in that knowledge, knowing it made everything better as Maura continued.

"In addition, Natalie loves brushing Anastasia's hair, as you are aware, it is long, thick and silky, partly due to Natalie's care. The only other persons to ever provide that service were her mother, who passed away when Anastasia was seven, and her father, who passed away not long after they first got together some four years ago. It is a quite personal thing between them both, one that Anastasia truly appreciates"

I nodded again, that was them both, tied up in a single sentence. As I thought about it, another couple came to mind, one we'd been heavily involved in getting together.

"I wonder what Sharon and Brenda do for each other" I was rewarded with a low chuckle.

"I understand both of them have had their water bills go up noticeably since they became a couple, apparently sharing a shower has not resulted in reduced water consumption, quite the opposite in fact" I grinned. The same thing had happened when Maura and I got together; I loved sharing a shower with her, a naked and wet Maura was just way too enticing to not enjoy running my hands all over those fabulous curves. I could understand the same thing happening for Brenda and Sharon, for all that they were older both were gorgeous women and they were head over heels in love with each other, something else I could totally empathise with.

"Well, yeah, that's understandable" Maura giggled gently.

"Apparently Brenda loves to wash Sharon's hair, Sharon casually mentioned over lunch some weeks back that she has had to increase her conditioning regime as her hair is getting washed more often than she was used to" I smiled. Sharon always did have nice hair, they both did actually. I moved my fingers down into Maura's instep and started working the muscles there, drawing a tiny hiss, before I fished for a bit more information.

"Anything else they do?" Maura smiled and nodded once.

"Indeed. Brenda loves to give Sharon a massage after a bad day, she makes sure she has a hot shower then carefully towel dries her before laying Sharon out on the bed and giving her a massage from her neck to her toes. Sharon has mentioned that by the time Brenda has finished all she wants to do is cuddle up and go to sleep" I smiled. I could totally see that happening, they worked hard to remain totally professional on the job, but the care and love those two had for each other was obvious when you saw them relaxed and away from work. That sort of massage was bliss, Maura's given me massages like that a few times, by the time she's finished I'm a weird combination of totally relaxed and incredibly turned on. To get my mind off that subject, at least until after dinner, I dragged my thoughts back to the subject, which I had to say I found fascinating.

"What about Sharon, what does she do for Brenda?" Maura smiled at me.

"Sharon bakes" I frowned.

"Bakes?" Her smile grew wider, Maura had built a close, solid friendship with both women, going running every week with Sharon and exchanging recipes, they both loved to cook, while she often had lunch with Brenda and caught up for a Saturday morning's tennis every fortnight, work permitting.

"Yes, as you are aware, Sharon is an excellent cook, and Brenda has a terrible sweet tooth" I nodded, the entire squad knew about her treat-filled top drawer, hell, probably the entire LAPD knew about it. "Sharon loves to bake her cookies and muffins and brownies and other treats however unknown to Brenda, Sharon's are quite healthy, replacing many of the worst of the trans-fats and cholesterol and sugar with alternatives that are much healthier. Brenda does not know it, but Sharon's treats are not only delicious, but much healthier for her" I smiled. That was Sharon, quieter than the rest of us but just as considerate, only more subtle about it. Maura gently kicked my thigh with her other foot, the one I wasn't working on.

"Brenda is unaware of Sharon's intentions and she will remain that way" I got an arched eyebrow and nodded, being rewarded with a smile. I smiled back, lost in her, how lucky was I to have someone like this in my life, to love and be loved by? How in hell did I get so lucky? As I did a thought occurred to me.

"How do you know all this?"

"Just chatting, we talk about each of you, as you might imagine" I caught the corner of my lip between my teeth. '_Uh oh_'

"You talk about me?"

"Of course I do, I am more than happy to tell them how lucky I am" I nodded slowly as alarm bells rang.

"What sort of things do you tell them about me?"

"Oh, how you love to wash my hair and give me those lovely shoulder massages, how you massage my feet after a long day and how you give me the best exfoliating scrubs" I felt a cold pit open in my stomach.

Oh. Shit. No.

"In fact Natalie told me she could not wait to tell Anastasia, she has been after her for ages to do foot massages" I nodded slowly, as the reality of what Maura was telling me sunk in.

"Uh huh"

"Of course, Alexandra wanted to tell Olivia what you do, because she really wants Olivia to do more massages and she felt having a combined scalp massage and shampoo sounded lovely"

"I see" I wondered for a moment why Liv and Ana hadn't mentioned any of this to me, before realising that each of us knew about the others. I smiled a trifle ruefully to myself. This was one of those 'what happens in Vegas moments', all of us knew and none of us would say anything. I shook my head gently, catching Maura's eye.

"You are very good at that Jane" I smirked as I moved my fingers onto the base of her toes, working them in sequence.

"I should be, I've had enough practice over the last few years"

"And I appreciate it every time, thank you Jane" I looked up and caught that smile, the one that she saves just for me, and fell into her eyes. She really was my reason for living.

I didn't really care if the others knew, I'd made Maura happy and that was all that counts.


	6. Chapter 6

****Intersecting Lines Book 2****

**06 Clues**

Maura's viewpoint

I looked around the inside of the burned out delivery van and sighed gently, it was almost a statistical certainty that we would recover no usable evidence from the vehicle's interior, the fire having erased any trace evidence that might have been left behind, with the notable exception of the unfortunate occupant remaining within.

"Whatcha think Doc?" Stepping back from the van I turned to look at Lieutenant's Flynn and Provenza. They had been called to the site after the Major Crimes flag on the van's licence plates had appeared in the LAPD computer when the wreckage was first discovered and called in. Lieutenant Flynn removed the ever present toothpick from between his teeth where he had been chewing on it, a nervous and mildly unsanitary habit which seems ever more in evidence at crime scenes, and spoke.

"Any chance of getting anything useful from the van?" I smiled at him.

"While highly unlikely, there is a very small chance we may recover something, yes"

"Yeah, that's what we figured too Doc, but we live in hope"

"There is always hope Lieutenant, a life without hope is not worth living" I got one of his off-centre smiles as Lieutenant Provenza leant forward into the van, his nose twitching.

"Is that kerosene I smell?" I nodded, pointing to areas where the aluminium roof of the van had twisted and buckled.

"The intensity of heat required for the roof to buckle in this manner would require a significantly greater radiant and thermal level than the combustion of the interior fittings would provide, taken together with the fact that the fuel tank has neither leaked nor exploded suggests there is a high probability that an accelerant was used, however I will not be able to confirm that…" Lieutenant Flynn finished the sentence for me, smiling.

"Until you get it back to the lab" I smiled back at him.

All of the Major Crimes team had picked up on Jane's habit of teasing me about my unwillingness to speculate on evidence, with both of my companions here amongst the most assiduous in their teasing. Jane says it's because they really are rather fond of me, a concept which I actually find quite pleasing.

"Exactly" We exchanged a quiet look, before he nodded towards the van's occupant.

"What about Mr Crispy here?" I turned back to the body lying across the parcel area in the van's rear.

"Again, it will take a through forensic examination of the deceased before I can be certain, however based on the evidence available, it would seem likely that we have found the individual who had previously been speculated to have been badly wounded at the scene of the most recent home invasion" Both heads turned at that.

"You speculate?" It was Lieutenant Flynn, surprise evident in his voice. "You ok Doc, you feeling alright?" I smiled.

"Quite well thank you Lieutenant Flynn, however I feel that there is little speculation here" At their raised eyebrows I smiled a little wider, explaining my reasoning.

"The body has been significantly damaged by the intensity of the fire, which has inflicted extensive damage to the external epidermis, including boiling off the moisture in the outer layers of the epidermis, making recovering DNA difficult. We will have to extract inner tissue or even bone marrow DNA for that however there remains enough evidence to suggest a statistically high likelihood that this is the suspect that we are seeking" At their sceptical looks I continued.

"The suspect is a male, as evidenced by the remaining stub of genitalia here" I indicated the groin area, where the clothes had burned off, getting a very male wince from both officers at the significant damage evident to the genitals. "As you can see here, the victim's body displays a significant wound in their right side, large enough to have caused exsanguination in a relatively short space of time" Lieutenant Flynn nodded.

"So he bled out" I ducked my head in a nod.

"In addition, the injury is consistent with neither a puncture wound nor a standard GSW, instead suggesting a larger wound, in particular the damage is consistent with a shotgun blast, probably from a distance of between six and eight feet" I smiled "All consistent with our presumed victim" Lieutenant Provenza cocked a sceptical eye at me.

"I dunno know Doc, that sounds a little speculative to me" I gave him a stern look but he was unfazed. I tried to ignore Lieutenant Flynn's barely-hidden grin as I fished out a pair of long, narrow-bladed tweezers from my bag, holding them up for their perusal.

"I will grant you that at first glance it may appear speculative however I would hope that after the amount of time we have been working together, you would have a little more faith in me"

I turned, leaned into the van and deftly collected the object I had spotted on earlier examination, a piece of shot. The cooking off of the epidermis had lifted the shot close to the surface, allowing me to see and identify it amongst the damaged tissue. Turning I held up the shot for their examination.

"I present the piece of proof that this unfortunate individual is connected to the home invasion case" They both craned their necks to look closely at it, Lieutenant Flynn shrugging his shoulders.

"Looks like shot to me, what makes it tied to our case?" I was about to answer when Lieutenant Provenza moved a little closer, squinting at it.

"Because its .22 shot, the same size as the ones found in the wall at the scene" I smiled happily, he had obviously paid attention to my crime scene report.

"Indeed. F gauge actually, notable because it is only available in stainless steel, rather than lead. Did you know that manufacturers are shifting away from the traditional lead-based shot for environmental reasons? Instead more and more manufacturers are using steel, bismuth, or tungsten for their shot" From their expressions I could tell that regrettably neither was particularly concerned about the environmental implications.

"But how can you tell that this particular shot is the same as the one from the house?" It was Lieutenant Provenza. I smiled again; they really should learn to trust me more.

"The very small, but noticeable maker's mark stamped into the shot, quite small but exactly the same as the ones previously recovered from the wall at the Shimamura residence" I saw the two detectives exchange a look. "The chances of the same sized shot, from the same manufacturer, turning up in a male body, in a delivery van identical to the one used to commit the crime, with a shotgun wound that would prove fatal, but not immediately, is vanishingly small" Lieutenant Provenza shot a look at his partner.

"Hard to argue with that" I worked hard to hide my triumphant smile before continuing.

"Thus it is not speculation, but deduction based on all of the available clues, allowing the reaching of a conclusion that is statistically almost certain" Lieutenant Flynn smiled and conceded graciously.

"We give Doc; you got us, on this one anyway" I nodded.

"Thank you Lieutenant" He looked around the van.

"Anything else?"

"It is very unlikely, however there is a small chance there might be, if you both would be kind enough to assist me in moving the body onto its side" Both were experienced detectives, neither batted an eyelid at the request and were of course wearing gloves. As they did the smell of charred meat filled the air. With the body on its side I could see the back, more importantly I could see the victim's left arm, which had been trapped under the body when it had been dumped in the back before the fire had been ignited.

I had been hoping that the positioning may have protected the arm sufficiently to leave fingerprints but the arm had come to rest palm down, allowing the heat from the metal floor to conduct the heat through to the skin, leaving it badly charred. The damage was unfortunately too significant to allow the recovery of finger prints. As I examined the arm I realised the area on the top of the arm was much less damaged, probably protected where it had been pressed up against the victim's back. A closer examination revealed markings on the skin.

"Lieutenant Provenza, would you be kind enough to retrieve and pass me the camera located in my bag, thank you" He did so as Lieutenant Flynn continued to support the body, though he raised his eyebrow at me. Once the camera was passed across, I took a series of shots with and without flash, before stepping back and letting them lay the body back down.

I flicked back through the images, confirming what I had thought.

"Your suspect is Japanese, almost certainly having lived there for most of their adult life. You probably need to look at an arrival within the last few years"

"How the hell can you tell that from a piece of barbecued meat?" It was Lieutenant Provenza. I proffered the camera to them.

"The victim has extensive tattoos on their arms; they may also have them on their torso and back, we may find additional evidence if enough of the epidermis was protected where it lay across this arm" I watched as Lieutenant Provenza flicked through the images, Lieutenant Flynn watching over his shoulder, before he looked up.

"How can you tell it's Japanese though?"

"The style of the tattoo, the intricate nature of the work, how it forms part of a larger mural and in particular the old fashioned manner in which it was created. This was not done with a modern electric needle; rather it was done with traditional bamboo needles and inks and follows the traditions of Irezumi" Seeing I had lost them I clarified the description.

"This person was a member of the Japanese organised crime clans collectively known as the Yakuza. The Yakuza practice extensive and intricate ritual tattooing and the traditional nature of the tattoo indicates that they grew up within a Japanese clan. The local US-based Yakuza clans lack the skilled artisans to create traditional Irezumi" They looked at me for a second before both turned their gaze to the body in the van, Lieutenant Flynn eventually speaking.

"So we're dealing with the Japanese mafia" For several seconds I weighed the advisability of attempting to explain the numerous significant stylistic, cultural and operational differences between the Mafia and the Yakuza, before reluctantly deciding now was neither the time nor the place.

"In a manner of speaking yes, both are organised crime syndicates" They shared another look before Lieutenant Provenza spoke.

"Anything else your eagle eye spotted that we might have missed?" I shook my head, feeling my cheeks warm.

"I sincerely doubt it, both of you are very experienced detectives, skilled at dealing with a wide variety of crime scenes, whereas my focus was on my singular area of expertise" Lieutenant Flynn shrugged.

"Don't be too hard on yourself Doc, Rizzoli's told us you could've been a detective, you're smart and good at observation, which is a fair chunk of the job" I looked up and smiled at his praise.

"Thank you Lieutenant, I appreciate your kind words, but reading people is the main part of being a detective and something I have never been good at" Lieutenant Provenza pulled a face.

"Don't run yourself down there Doc, you do better than ok" I felt a little uncomfortable with their praise.

"Thank you both, you are very kind, however I feel that your skill set is something I would never master" I paused for a moment to consider their comments before something occurred to me.

"Besides, I would question your assumption that intelligence is a prerequisite for a detective, after all, it seems to have eluded Commander Taylor despite his many years in the role" I caught their growing smiles as I grimaced at my interactions with that particularly disagreeable individual. "On the other hand, perhaps I could be a detective despite my poor social skills; Russell Taylor has managed to ascend to the rank of Commander and leadership of the Robbery / Homicide division without demonstrating any appreciable talents in that area either"

Their laughter was quick and unforced, making me smile with them. Finally Lieutenant Provenza smiled.

"That has to be the most polite, accurate description of Taylor I've heard in a long time" Lieutenant Flynn nodded.

"Nicest way to call him an ass yet" I shook my head, my tone mildly reproving.

"Now Lieutenant; that is not a particularly nice thing to say, the ass is a very useful animal and performs a multitude of roles well, regrettably the same cannot be said of Commander Taylor" Both officers laughed even harder before Lieutenant Flynn spoke.

"Doc, you just keep telling yourself you're no good at reading people, the rest of us know better"


	7. Chapter 7

****Intersecting Lines Book 2****

**07 Taylor Troubles**

Sharon's viewpoint

Thursday mornings are Pope's Senior Officer's Meeting's, his direct reports assemble to provide updates on their divisions, get directives from Pope and hear the latest pearls of wisdom to filter down from the Mayor's office. For all that I'm no great fan of the man Pope runs these meetings on a tight leash; his predecessor let them drag on till the point that they became a test of both your patience and bladder control. Under Pope it's report the top three or four key items and then move on to the next department head. If you need to talk about more than that you make an appointment and go see him, that way you're not wasting everyone else's time.

This meeting was a little different; Pope had asked the District Attorney's office to participate on a permanent basis; it was a good idea. We funneled so many cases through them that it made sense; cooperation between the two organisations was good at an institutional level but individually we butted heads regularly. It seemed that the quality of the case's outcome often depended on which Deputy District Attorney was assigned to the case, some were good, some average and some bad, what you'd find in any organisation really.

We were in luck; they'd sent Andrea Hobbs, one of their best. She was smart, dedicated and great at getting the most out of a witness. While she'd made her name in negotiated settlements and plea bargains, she liked to send criminals away as much as the rest of us, which made her a lot easier to deal with than some of the other DDAs. Brenda had worked on more than a few cases with Andrea in recent years and had a lot of good things to say about her.

Andrea had become involved with Mikki Mendoza a few months before Brenda and I had started dating, Mikki was one of Commander Ruiz's detectives in SIS. We'd had dinner with them both just after New Year at their place and they'd been over to my place for dinner a few weeks back where they'd turned out to be good company, even though they had very different personalities, Mikki was a bit younger, driven and determined where Andrea was older, more reflective, calmer; they didn't look like a match but it seemed to be working for them, given how comfortable they were with each other.

I'd butted heads with Andrea from time to time over the years on professional matters but in person she was calm and considered with a wicked sense of humour and a refreshingly down to earth personality for a lawyer, too many of the DDAs looked down on the cops, not Andrea though. I liked her.

Andrea ended up sitting between Anastasia and Commander Reynolds from the Gang Task Force; it sure made a change from the bad old days. Back then it had been Brenda and I in a sea of male uniforms, occasionally we'd be joined by Candace Morrell, the head of HR, but the meetings had generally been awash in a sea of testosterone. Then Maura, Ana and Natalie had joined us and Candace had made it a point to attend, making a nice change, with seven of us here now it felt a little less the boys club that the LAPD still was.

Given the additions were attractive women, there hadn't been too many complaints, well except for Taylor and a few of his cronies of course, really though it was Taylor who was the problem, he despised Brenda, loathed Natalie and hated the rest of us. He constantly tried to undermine us, especially Brenda, who'd kicked him out of Major Crimes when she suspected he was leaking information against her, and Natalie who'd publically stared him down at the LAPD Ball, forcing him to back off. With the rest of us his dislike wasn't really personal, just on general principles, but he tried to undermine all of us when he could.

Pope kicked off the meeting by welcoming Andrea, hoping it would lead to a better understanding on both sides and then announced he was assigning Narcotics' Deputy Chief Kelso to sit in on weekly meetings at the DAs office for the same reason. I nodded, it made sense and anything that helped cooperation between us was good. He started going round the room, the usual bitching about overtime limits, a reminder from Candace for departments to try and get their people's annual leave balances down, the usual stuff.

The roll out of the LAPDs new cruisers was coming along, though the money diverted for that meant that maintenance money for our current fleet of Crown Vic's was down. There were groans at that, the old cars were miserable to drive; the uniformed officers had grown to hate them so they couldn't wait for the new Caprice's to come on line. Unfortunately replacing the fleet of unmarked cars was further down the priority list, so the rest of us would have to soldier on with the Crown Vics for a while longer, which with less money for maintenance meant more cars off the road for longer, something a number of people around the table quickly pointed out, to no avail. Brenda leaned in and smiled; her voice low as she spoke for my ears only.

"Wonder what the chances are of getting mine traded for a Caprice, god knows mine's getting old" I smiled quietly.

"I don't know sweetie, maybe you could flirt your way into convincing Pope to give you one" I got a gentle elbow in the ribs and a muttered 'jerk' in return. I had to hide a smile; I just knew I was going to pay for that comment later, probably tonight.

As Pope ran round the table we all had our moments.

Maura highlighted some of the cases pending, the usual backlog in the MEs office was slowly trending down thanks to some changes in procedures, that she was hosting a visit by several colleagues from back east and that they were refining the training courses to be taken by all new recruits on dealing with crime scenes as first responders to let them attend without contaminating the scene.

Ana noted the Bureau's assistance to several gang task force investigations, that the Bureau had a new organised crime head in the LA office and would be bringing him round to meet people in the LAPD later in the week and that the FBI Director would be visiting LA next month and would like to meet Pope.

Andrea mentioned she was pleased to have the chance to work with the LAPD and hopefully her being here would help improve relations between both agencies. She touched on a few big cases that were passing through the courts, mentioned that the District Attorney's office was hoping to recruit several new DDAs to deal with the work load and that Tony Yuksal, one of the DA office's longest serving DDAs was going to be retiring next month. I nodded slowly, Tony was an institution, one of their best people to work with and a man with a great success rate, I'd worked with him a couple of times over the years and he'd be missed.

Natalie touched on a few high points, they'd been approached about getting help to film a new police reality television show about the air wing, she looked over at the air wing's Captain Oats who nodded; another studio was looking at making a series about a K9 unit officer and his dog, the show was an educational one aimed at young kids, they were looking at either the LAPD or the LA County Sherriff and Nat was determined that it'd be the LAPD getting the good publicity. She mentioned the overall trend line for positive comments about the LAPD in the media was holding steady, with a few blips related to specific cases.

Taylor chose that point to break in, asking if that included the pounding the LAPD was taking in the Asian language media lately. Natalie however just smiled and nodded, playing it cool.

"Yes, the monitoring does pick up non-English media Commander, they're one of the blips I mentioned, in this case a negative one" Taylor leaned forward.

"Given we're getting hammered on Major Crime's handling of these home invasions, what are you doing about it?" I tried hard not to frown, not only was Taylor having a go at my girlfriend and one of our friends, up until last week it'd been his team's failure. I caught Brenda's expression darkening and gently moved my foot over against hers, distracting her for a moment. Natalie was unfazed, though her smile was her professional one, the one she used on camera, not her normal happy smile.

"We're reaching out to the Asian language media, setting up a series of one on one interview's with Chief Johnson and some of the major non-English media outlets, explaining what we're doing to catch the suspects. In addition one of my staff, Lilly Chan, will be working directly with those media outlets to provide a direct communication channel to them"

"You're gonna put Chief Johnson up for media interviews?" Taylor voice was pure skepticism. "She's not got the best track record with the media" Brenda couldn't contain herself, though she kept her voice polite, her accent quite pronounced.

"Why thank you so very much for that vote of confidence Commander, I'll try and keep your advice in mind" Taylor turned to Natalie before she could speak.

"If you want someone experienced at dealing with the media and given it was my team's case before it was handed over to Major Crimes, I'd be happy to do the media for you" He smirked. "That way we'd avoid anything happening that might make the situation worse" Brenda was about to interject so I nudged her foot again, distracting her long enough for Natalie to respond.

"Thank you for your offer Commander, however I believe the media would prefer to hear real facts from the senior officer personally dealing with the crime, it makes it look like we're finally taking the problem seriously and are actually committed to solving it"

I inwardly winced at the phrasing, hopefully not too many people picked up on the implicit 'fuck you' in there, though given the determinedly bland look on Pope's face he probably had. I noticed Maura and Ana were both reading their notes studiously, heads down while Andrea's eyebrow had risen in amusement; yep, they'd picked it up, in fact seeing some of the barely hidden amused expressions around the table most of the room probably had. Natalie looked over at Brenda and smiled, a real one this time.

"Given Major Crime's closure rate and well known successes in dealing with difficult crimes, it sends a message that we're taking the community's concerns seriously" She looked back at Taylor, her smile dropping away.

"As for Chief Johnson dealing with the media, I would expect nothing less of her than I would of any other officer around this table, that any of the people here would do an excellent job of representing the Department and getting our message across" I saw Taylor's jaw tighten, the way Natalie had phrased it, any attack on Brenda now would be an attack on the capabilities of all of the senior officers around the table. Pope must have seen it, as he broke the quiet tension around the table.

"Thank you Natalie. Captain Turner, what's happening out on the water" As the Harbour Division head spoke I smiled quietly at Natalie, getting the slightest curl at the corner of her mouth in return. Glancing at Brenda I could see her colour was a little red, she was still annoyed at Taylor, not that I blamed her.

Turning to look at Taylor, I saw he was obviously pissed, he'd gone in to attack both Natalie and Brenda and it had blown up in his face, he definitely wasn't a happy camper, shooting daggers at Natalie where she sat there. He must have realised I was watching him as he turned his baleful glare at me for a moment, before looking away to murmur to his crony Garcia from Juvenile, before they both turned their attention on me and smiled nastily.

"Oh that…man" I almost smiled at Brenda's low voiced words; she made them sound like a curse.

"Maybe we should send him off to the range to re-qualify, he certainly shot himself in the foot just then" Brenda didn't smile, but kept her voice low.

"No offence but I was kinda hoping for an area about six feet higher Sharon" At that I did smile.

"Well, wishes may come true"

"God I hope so"

The rest of the meeting went quietly, but I had the feeling that things were going to get worse before they got better.


	8. Chapter 8

****Intersecting Lines Book 2****

**08 Another home invasion**

Brenda's viewpoint

The house was upscale in a nice neighbourhood, the gardens and pool well tended, the Audi sedan and the BMW SUV in the drive attesting to a level of comfortable living most would aspire to.

Unfortunately the site in front of me was anything but comforting, a middle-aged Asian man dead in a wide pool of blood, his throat slashed almost clear though, left in the hall of his own home.

I'd arrived late; I'd been stuck in Pope's weekly senior officers meeting, stewing a bit over Taylor's petty bigotry while the rest of the squad had rolled out, David having waited around to drive me here when I escaped the meeting; Natalie and Maura had left right behind me and were due any moment. I turned to Sanchez who was filling me in, as I realised he'd stopped while I looked around.

"Sorry Detective, please continue"

"Well Chief, the assailants broke down the security screen door pretty quickly, but the reinforced front door took a bit longer, it seems that gave Mister Lin's wife and son time to get into their safety room" he indicated a closet door that stood open, revealing a solid steel door leading to a panic room behind it. I nodded; the victim was lying in front of the open closet door. Taking in the bloody tableux in front of me it seemed obvious.

"It seems he was unable to make it inside before they caught him" I saw both Sanchez and Tao shake their heads before Tao spoke.

"He stayed behind to distract them Chief, buy his family enough time to get inside and set off the alarm" Sanchez squatted next to the body to point out the injuries.

"It appears they tortured him to give up the cypher lock combination, based on the injuries to his hand" I nodded, taking in the crushed fingers and the missing little finger as he continued. "He obviously refused and they slit his throat before leaving" I looked up and nodded as I took in the corridor.

"Did they try and get through the door here?" Provenza shook his head.

"Bank's have less secure vaults than this place" He waved at Jane who pulled the steel door back, not without some effort, it had to be three inches thick, you could see where rods came out of it and slotted into the thick concrete wall. Looking in you could see a filing cabinet, some furniture, a table with a phone and a television set with an old VCR machine mounted on the wall. I frowned and looked around, but Jane held her hand up.

"If you're looking for a camera Chief, we have two, an obvious one here…" She pointed to a black dome that projected down from the hall ceiling outside the safe room entrance. "And another one back here" Jane pointed up into a chandelier further down the hall where another camera was visible if you knew what to look for. "Buzz has the tape already" I nodded, grateful that having a squad so sharp meant things happened without me having to ride everyone constantly.

"What about the family Detective Sanchez, a wife and child I believe you said?" Sanchez grimaced.

"Yeah, both pretty traumatised" He gestured towards the camera. "They saw it all on camera" I nodded, trying to not show how I felt about that, to watch someone you love killed because they were protecting you… I had a new perspective on that situation since falling for Sharon.

"Are they able to talk yet?" Flynn shrugged.

"The mother not yet; the son's taking it a lot better, he's only four and I suppose he's used to violence on television and stuff and doesn't realise it was really his dad being killed on TV" Provenza snorted.

"Another, previously unknown benefit of all those violent computer games" I ignored his editorialising and looked around.

"Do we know why they wanted into this room so badly, rather than just stripping the place of the valuables they've been stealing in previous attacks?"

"It seems that our vic here didn't believe in banks. Apparently didn't trust them" Flynn shrugged again. "Who knows, upshot is though that the family kept their jewellery and cash in there, probably figured it was safer and more convenient than a bank"

"Exactly how much are we talking about Lieutenant?" He shook his head.

"Not sure Chief, but based on the contents of the drawers we pulled open, probably fifty or sixty thousand dollars, plus however much all the jewellery's worth" I felt my eyebrows rise in surprise. In response he held his hands out. "There's a lot of jewellery"

"Sixty thousand dollars, in cash?" I looked around. "Exactly what business was our victim operating here anyway?" Tao looked around from where he was examining the inner workings of the vault door.

"Apparently our vic owned a couple of luxury car franchises here in LA, hence the Audi and BMW out front" I nodded.

Sergeant Gabriel, would you be so kind as to run Mister Lin's financials, let's confirm that all the money came from his legitimate businesses, I want to make sure selling cars was the only business Mister Lin was conducting here in LA" Sanchez scowled.

"You thinking maybe drug money Chief?" I shook my head.

"Let's rule things out before we rule them in shall we Detective"? He nodded as Sergeant Gabriel turned to regard the vault-like door.

"Makes sense, this room sure isn't something that comes standard in your average house, maybe he was expecting trouble" Provenza shook his head slowly, looking down at the body.

"If he was expecting it, well he wasn't disappointed"

I looked up as Maura and her team arrived, nodding to her as she bent down to pull on the blue disposable booties over her heels.

"And good morning to you Doctor Isles" Maura looked up and flashed me a warm smile, she really was quite lovely and her calming presence usually helped cheer me up.

"Good morning again Chief Johnson" Standing she walked over as she finished pulling on her medical gloves.

"Single victim, throat slashed plus various other injuries" Maura's eyes narrowed, as she became all business.

"If you will excuse me then?" I stepped aside as Maura nodded and moved towards the body, nodding to Jane as she passed, before squatting down next to the victim, as usual making sure to not disturb the scene. She leaned backwards and forwards, seeing the body from different angles before looking up at me.

"If you have the crime scene imagery, may I move the victim?" Flynn nodded at my silent question and I looked back at Maura.

"Of course Doctor" As two of her team lifted the body into a nearby body bag I saw her lean in to more closely examine the slit throat. Taking in the area around the body she examined the finger lying there, before slowly standing and turning.

"The knife used was obviously very sharp, however the blades used were different. The one used to sever the finger was apparently a straightedge, while the one used on the throat appears to have been curved. I should be able to give you a more conclusive result once I get the body back to the morgue" I nodded, that was Maura, observations but no conclusions until she had scientific proof, not that I minded at all.

When Maura came to a conclusion you could take it to the bank, or court in our case; her results would be iron clad and incontestable. Lord knows she'd helped tie up enough major cases since she had arrived, all thanks to her skill and dedication, every now and then I gave thanks that Boston's loss was our gain. She turned to oversee her team's work as they carefully moved a gurney into the corridor.

Stepping back I started assigning tasks to the team; canvas of the neighbours, searching out any possible cameras covering the area or the streets leading in and out, checking in with the major parcel delivery companies to see if any vehicles had been stolen in the last 24 hours, in line with the M.O. of our home invasion crew, the check of the family's financial's, the history behind what was a remarkably secure panic room and monitoring the wife to see when she'd be in a position to give a statement and ensuring the surveillance tape got back to headquarters safely.

I'd just finished when I looked up to see Natalie at the door, reminding me that the media were demanding answers. She looked at me and nodded, giving me space to do my job but letting me know she was here. Normally she was a welcome sight but her arrival reminded me of my as yet-unfulfilled promise to conduct interviews with some of the media. I could imagine that conversation getting another airing and wasn't looking forward to it, at all. I wearily rubbed my eyes, feeling a migrane coming on, '_oh great_'.

Several hours later the entire team less Sanchez, who was down in the morgue watching Maura's autopsy on the unfortunate Mister Lin, had gathered in the electronics room to watch the footage from the VCR, Buzz had managed to convert it from poor quality VCR tape to something much clearer, the video was in black and white and there was no audio but what I saw was bad enough.

The father was hustled into the camera's field of view; he'd obviously already been roughed up, blood streaming down his face from a scalp wound. There were at least four men in the frame, all wearing ski masks, forcing the victim to his knees in front of the door. I frowned.

"Can you stop the tape please Buzz" The images froze. "Interesting, the suspects obviously already knew about the safe room, they came here pretty much immediately" There were nods around the team. "When was the room installed?" Mike Tao flipped open his notebook.

"It came with the house, the original owner had it installed when he built it. The Lin's only bought the house two years ago" I nodded, that checked with what we'd already learned, on first examination it looked like the Lin's were a upper-middle class family running a successful, legitimate business, successful enough to attract the attention of our home invasion crew.

"Lieutenant, please chase up the original owner, find out who knew about that room. Lieutenant Flynn, could you please follow up with the wife when she's able to talk, ask who they may have told about the room" I nodded. "Please continue Buzz"

As the tape rolled on we watched as two of the men held the victim by his arms while a third obviously demanded he open the door. When the father shook his head the third man stepped back and yet another, much larger ski-masked assailant savagely kicked Lin in the chest, watching as he fell to the floor before crushing the father's fingers under his boot heel. We watched the two men holding him drag him upright again where the person asking the questions pointed towards the door, getting another shake of the head. At a nod from the first man the big man who had done the abuse stepped forward and pulled out a knife, straight-edged I noted, brandishing it in front of the victim.

Despite the obvious threat the father still shook his head, while we watched he was forced to his knees and the man with the knife stamped down on the victim's forearm, forcing it flat and likely breaking it in the process, then knelt down on it and did something that the camera was at the wrong angle to catch, however the victim's writhing and screaming told its own story, when the attacker stepped back there was a pool of blood on the floor and something small lying there on the floor, as most of the people watching the tape winced.

The man asking the questions looked up at the camera and gestured to the father who was sobbing and clutching his hand, blood dripping and pooling on the floor.

"Tortured the poor bastard right there on camera" It was Flynn. Jane nodded.

"Hacked off the little finger, that's apparently an old Yakuza tradition" Provenza looked across at her, surprise evident.

"Hey Rizzoli, didn't realise you had a lot of Yakuza back in Boston" He got a head shake and rolled eyes from Jane in return.

"Maura was the one who worked out it was Yakuza in the first place, so she's been telling me about them" She shrugged. "When Maura does a case-related info dump, I listen" I nodded. Maura was a certified genius, when she told you something important, it was always well worth paying attention. Mike Tao nodded and gestured at the screen.

"Message's pretty clear, open the door or we'll do more. Trying to get the family inside to open up, if he won't do it from the outside" I nodded as we watched, the father shaking his head. I was about to say something when the heads of all the attackers lifted. Provenza grimaced.

"Figure they heard the first sirens right about then" I watched with pursed lips as the man asking the questions turned to the man with the knife and said something. The two men holding the arms stepped back as the shaken victim dropped to his knees, the big man changing knives before stepping up behind him, grabbing Lin's hair and yanking it back, then in a single savage move reached round and slashed the victim's throat wide open, stepping back to leave the victim thrashing on the floor before leaving the camera's field of view. As he did I noted the knife in his hand had a reversed curve blade with the edge on the inside of the curve, it looked like something a butcher would use, in this case it might as well have been made for what it had been used for. As the tape stopped I sighed.

"Well, Doctor Isles will be able to tell us if the victim suffocated or bled out first but it's pretty academic at this point. It's obvious that the gang has escalated their attacks to the point that killing their victims seems to be the default response" Gabriel nodded.

"Yeah, there was no way the victim would have been able to identify his attackers, so why kill him, he was no threat" Flynn shrugged.

"Sending a message to their future victims, don't do exactly what we say or try and stop us, we'll kill you" Jane grimaced.

"These guys are stone cold, especially the one with the knife" She looked round the room. "Anyone else think that throat-cutting move looked pretty well practiced?" There were nods all round, it looked very smooth indeed. At my request Buzz ran that section of the tape again. Several people commented on how smoothly the job had been done, smooth enough that none of the blood spatter had hit the knife weilder. I sighed.

"Detective Rizzoli, can you please run a search through the database for similar knife killings" I looked back at the image frozen on the screen and sighed again. "As you say, it surely looks like something he's done before"


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: ** I have been asked from time to time what my muses Natalie and Ana look like. Natalie's face is the one that appears for Intersecting Lines and Intersecting Lines Book 2, as well as my other story Pillow Talking.

Anastasia's face is used for Intersecting Lines Drabbles, Intersecting Lines Possession and Passion, Watching the Detectives and Hearts on the Shopping Block.

If you would like to see more images of them, and the other women of Intersecting Lines, open Intersecting Lines Book 2. Click on the image of Natalie then, when the larger image appears, click on it and select '_Search Google for this image_'. The top result will be '_Natalie Dearing Photos by UnicornFF | Photobucket_' Click that link for images of Nat and Ana, Jane and Maura, Sharon and Brenda, Liv and Alex and the rest of the couples I write about.

Thanks for reading.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**09 ****Fashion **

Jane's viewpoint

The food was great, as usual. The company was even better, as usual, but I couldn't really let myself go. It was Friday night and we were having dinner at Nat and Ana's but the phone call I'd had this afternoon from Boston had pissed me right off. Maura had been nothing but understanding but I was still out of sorts, to the point that it hadn't taken the others long to work out something was up.

"C'mon Jane, what's eating you" It was Natalie, backed up by Ana.

"Yeah, you've not been yourself all night" I sighed.

"I got a call from my old job back in Boston today, I have to go back for an appeal by a guy we put away for multiple homicides three years ago" They looked at me, waiting for the other shoe to drop. "I'll probably be gone for three to four days" Ana looked confused.

"I know you were back there for Christmas, but it's only a couple of days, it'll give you both a chance to catch up with people again" I grimaced.

"It's just me, Maura's not needed" Nat's eyes flicked across to Maura, sitting curled up next to me.

"Why not, won't they need you to give evidence?" Maura smiled.

"Apparently I am not required" I barked out a laugh.

"Nah" I reached out and wrapped my arm around Maura's shoulders, pulling her close. "The defence knows better than to put Maura on the stand, no one argues with her evidence, not more than once. So it's just me" I leaned in and kissed her.

"What's the problem though?" I sighed.

"There's two really. The first is I'll have to go back to work with my old boss at BPD Homicide, he was one of the main reasons I was so glad to come out here to LA. He really doesn't like gays, something he made quite clear to us on numerous occasions, so I started drawing all the shitty assignments. He also gave some of the more homophobic detectives free reign, they could dump shit on me, but I'd get reprimanded for taking it back to them" Natalie frowned.

"Couldn't you take it up with your HR people, you shouldn't have to deal with that sort of thing in this day and age, it's the 21st century after all" I shook my head, still getting a little steamed about it even after months away from it all.

"No, he made it clear that if I kicked up a fuss I'd be 'loaned' back to vice permanently" I shrugged. "I'd worked too damned hard to get out of vice in the first place to be sent back" Ana cocked her head to one side.

"If he didn't like that you were gay, why didn't he just send you back to vice straight away?" I was about to day something, play things down a bit, when Maura spoke up, she'd always been proud of my successes.

"Because Lieutenant Cavanaugh would have to find a way to justify it, not just to HR but also to the BPD brass and quite possibly the Mayor's office" Maura hugged herself into me a little more and spoke; her voice full of pride. "Jane had developed quite a profile for the cases she had solved, so sending Boston's best homicide detective permanently back to the vice squad would definitely have attracted some attention" I smiled down at her, then looked up at our friends.

"Well this time it's only temporary and I'll be home before you know it" They both looked a little dubious but let it go, they cared enough to be concerned for me, but also enough to let the subject drop. Ana leaned forward.

You mentioned two problems? What's the other one?"

"It's just an annoyance, but on the last day in Boston last Christmas we put all our cold weather clothes into long-term storage until we worked out what to do with them, so I don't have anything to wear for a miserable Boston winter, especially to court. I hate having to buy clothes I'm probably never going to wear again. God knows I won't need winter weight suits here in LA" I didn't look at Maura while I spoke, we'd had been through this on the drive over, I know she's rich but I hated the idea of buying things for only one use. "I'll survive"

"How long did you say you're in Boston?" It was Natalie. "Three or four days?"

"Yeah, probably four days" She nodded once.

"No problem, come with me" I looked over at Maura and got a smile and a tilt of the head as Natalie paused at the door and looked back at me over her shoulder. "C'mon" Shrugging, I got up and followed her down the hall into the spare bedroom. We'd crashed here a few times but I'd never felt the need to go ferreting through their closets.

Natalie walked over to the built-in closets filling one wall and opened a few doors.

"You're about the same height as me, a bit slimmer in places, so some of this should fit you" Before I knew it Nat was pulling out a few clothes bags and laying them on the bed. The first one was unzipped and a grey woollen skirt suit was being pulled out.

"Uh Nat, its ok, there's no need…" Natalie just ignored my protests, holding the suit up against me.

"That one might do, it's pretty warm" She looked up at me. "Seattle's winters aren't all that pleasant, so I have a pile of winter-weight suits and stuff, some of them should fit you" I had visions of me dressing like her, all tight jackets and short skirts and just knew they weren't me.

"I don't want to sound ungrateful Nat, but…" She laughed.

"Then don't, just try them on" She held the suit out to me. "Don't worry, nothing too risqué or corporate"

"Go on Jane, it cannot hurt" I turned to see Maura and Ana standing in the doorway. I went to say something when Ana shook her head.

"Jane, you're not going to win against both of them, just go with it, there's sure to be something there that fits, lord knows Nat has enough clothes to fit out an army" Natalie tossed the suit to me as she turned back to the bed, sorting through the rest of the clothes in the bag.

"This might do" She held up a forest green suit and turned to Maura. "What do you think Maura?" I looked at Ana and got a grin in return as I shook my head while Maura tilted her head to the side as she contemplated the suit.

"I have never really seen Jane in greens, more reds and darks" I turned my head to look at her.

"Darks?" She was busy considering another suit Natalie was holding up, a dark grey pinstripe and nodded in approval.

"Yes, I could see her in that" I went to interrupt when Natalie looked at me.

"Jane, hurry up and get undressed, we don't have all night" I heard a snicker from the door, making me round on Ana.

"Look you, don't just stand there, make yourself useful and go get us something to drink. God knows I need a beer to even consider agreeing to this" Ana left with a mock salute and a laugh as I turned back to face them.

"Maura, maybe this isn't such a good idea…" She just fixed me with that smile and moved a little closer, resting her hand on my arm as she gazed up at me, puppy dog eyes turned up to about a seven on the Maura scale; I knew I was beaten before she spoke.

"You will look wonderful darling, you have often commented that Natalie's clothes look good on her, I am certain you will look equally splendid" I knew I had to put up at least a token effort, as futile as it might be.

"But I'm a cop, not a spokes-model" I got a filthy look from Nat as she pulled another bag out of the cupboard.

"Then you'll be a good cop spokes-model too, now get undressed"

An hour and two beers later we were back in the lounge room, Maura and I snuggled up on the sofa. It turned out that Natalie's wardrobe didn't completely consist of corporate fetish wear, all tightly tailored jackets and even tighter short skirts, thank god. I had two trouser suits plus two skirt suits, one knee length the other just above, all in winter weights. Even I had to admit I'd be warm in them.

Natalie took a different shoe size from me, but Ana had loaned me two pairs of lined-boots that fit, one knee high that went with the skirts, the other ankle length to wear with the trousers. They both came with four inch heels, that was going to be interesting; it made me stand well past six feet, which hadn't really fazed Natalie at all.

"The extra height will add authority; you're already striking so the added inches will just reinforce that" Ana had nodded from where she'd been lounging in the door, making not terribly helpful comments, basically teasing the hell out of me.

"You'll look good in court Jane, make a favourable impression and that's half the battle" I'd nodded, realising I was kinda backed into a corner, it'd only be four days and then I'd be out of there. What could go wrong?

I'd frowned at that thought for a moment, I really should know better than to tempt fate like that.

Maura was smiling up at me from where she was curled up on the sofa as Ana made coffees, she hadn't really stopped since the impromptu fashion show; I just knew she'd tease me later about being dressed like Natalie, probably something about wearing some of her short skirts and tight jackets while perched on a set of stilettos. We'd joked about it from time to time, she'd probably suggest I should wear something like that just so that she could take me bent across the sofa or table or something silly, Maura had a wicked imagination when she let it loose. She squirmed in a little closer and looked up as Ana walked in with a tray of coffee's, handing them out and settling down together on the other sofa. As usual Natalie ended up sitting with her back against Ana's shoulder, using her as a cushion; it was one of her favourite positions, as Ana looped her arm across Nat's shoulder and down across her front, where her fingers were entwined with Nats. Maura smiled a little and put her cup down.

"We have received an invitation to a function in New York, late next month" They both looked up, intrigued.

"Hmm, are you going?"

"It is for the Mayor's Charity Ball, we went last year and had a good time. The Ball is the catalyst for how we met Alexandra and Olivia" Natalie sat up a bit straighter.

"Oh, do tell?"

"Jane and I were shopping for clothes…"I couldn't let that statement go unchallenged.

"You were shopping, I was carrying the bags" Maura rolled her eyes as they snickered.

"Very well, I was shopping and Jane was kind enough to accompany me, when we visited an establishment I have been patronising for years as they have some wonderful dresses. I needed several new gowns for a number of charity events I was committed to attend"

"Not that Maura needs an excuse to shop" She peered up at me from the corner of her eye as I spoke. "Mind you the high end retail fashion industry would go into recession if she stopped" I got a mock scowl. "Sorry, carry on" Maura's scowl faded and she grinned at me, lighting up the room, god I lived for her smiles.

"I really do have no idea why I put up with your abuse" I noticed Nat and Ana exchange a grin as we spoke.

"Because you love me?" Maura's honey blond hair tossed in the light as she shook her head.

"Maybe" I tried again.

"Because of my many charms?"

"You have charms?" It was Ana; I didn't bother with a reply, just flipping the bird in her direction as Maura spoke, adopting a mocking tone.

"Do not get too full of yourself Detective, I have alternatives"

"Yeah, like who?" Maura smiled, correcting me automatically.

"Whom Jane, not who. I am sure Anastasia and Natalie here would be happy to take me in if I needed an alternative" She looked over at them. "Can I move in with you?" Ana just grinned like the Cheshire Cat while Nat chuckled wickedly.

"Sure, we've got a big bed, you're welcome anytime" I snorted at the idea.

"Romanov here? With the two of you, trying to keep you both satisfied? She'd be dead within a week, of exhaustion" I smiled as Ana smirked.

"There are worse ways to go" Maura looked across at Natalie.

"Natalie, could you start building up Anastasia's stamina please, I do like having options available" Nat mock saluted as I imagined Maura sandwiched between the two of them… Hmm, both hot and disturbing all at the same time.

"Aye aye captain" She twisted to look up at Ana, smiling. "Hear that Tsarina, stamina training, starting tonight" She got a groan from Ana.

"Oh god, not again" That got her a wink and a poke in the ribs.

"Stop complaining, you love it"

"Maybe" Nat gave Ana a wicked grin and settled back into Ana's embrace before she looked back at Maura, dragging the conversation back on track.

"You were talking about meeting Alex and Liv"

"Ah yes, to finish the story, at the time we walked into the dress shop, Alexandra was trying on dresses while Olivia was waiting. It turns out that Alex was shopping for a dress for the same function and we hit it off" I smiled; there was a whole pile of that story being left untold. (_See_ _**Hearts on the Shopping Block**_)

Natalie smiled as she leaned forward to pick up her coffee.

"Cool, there's been a lot of water under that bridge since"

"Indeed there has. I was chatting to Alex a few nights ago and they too have received an invitation to the Ball" Ana sniggered.

"You know what that means Jane? Dress shopping" They were both obviously surprised to see me break out into a smile at the idea, especially given my all too well-known reluctance to go shopping.

"Nuh uh, not this time" Before they could ask Maura spoke.

"The invitation simply states formal wear; it did not specifically state women must wear evening dresses as so many functions do. The last time we attended such a function Jane was kind enough to wear a tuxedo" Nat suddenly burst out laughing.

"I've heard all about that night, awesome" Maura smiled.

"Alex is having Olivia measured for a tuxedo this weekend" Ana nodded slowly.

"I'd like to see that, Liv'd look great and even you might manage to look good Jane" I just smiled widely at her.

"Jealousy's a curse Ana" Nat turned a happy smile on us.

"You have to get photos guys, I'd love to see you all dressed up, especially Jane and Liv" I turned to Maura and nodded approvingly.

"See, at least someone appreciates me" Before Maura could speak Nat interrupted.

"Liv yes, you? Not so much" I gave her a filthy look which she grinned at. "It should be a good night" Maura looked at me for a moment and a slow smile appeared, before she turned to them.

"Would you and Ana be able to join us? You know Olivia and Alexandra have been wanting you to come and visit them in New York" They both had a look of surprise, glancing at each other, then Nat day up and leaned forward.

"It would depend on if we can get the time off, when is it?" Maura sat up, her growing excitement obvious.

"Last Saturday evening of next month but you have to come, please?" Ana smiled.

"Wouldn't we be gate-crashing the do, I think they'd take a dim view of that" I smiled, that wouldn't be a problem, not with the amount the Isles Foundation usually donated, let alone what the Cabot family trust normally kicked in too.

"I can pretty much guarantee you an invitation will be on its way real soon" Maura nodded in agreement, all smiles as Nat and Ana had a quick silent conversation, then looked back at us, both nodding, before Nat broke into laughter.

"Yes! I've wanted to see Ana in a tux ever since Maura told me about Jane wearing one" I looked across at Ana, who was looking at Nat, smiling a trifle uncertainly at her entirely too enthusiastic response. "No ifs or buts Tsarina, we're going. I want to see you in a tux, no arguments" Anastasia shrugged.

"Looks like I'm comprehensively outvoted here, so it looks like we're all going as penguins" She looked across at me. "There is a bit of a problem though" Maura and Nat both frowned and Maura leaned forward.

"What problem is that?"

"Well I can understand fitting Jane into a tux, but then she looks like a long haired guy anyway. I on the other hand actually have curves..." She gestured to her ample tits. "...so it may be a bit more difficult" I scowled, Ana being a wise ass. Nat gave her gentle backhand to the arm as I smirked.

"Oh is that what you call all those extra pounds you've stacked on?" Her reply was a yelp.

"What pounds?" I knew she'd been full on in the gym in recent weeks, plus our sparring sessions had toned us both up, we were in great shape, didn't mean I wasn't going to tease her though.

"You've been hitting your own cooking a bit hard there Ana, probably four or five pounds overweight I'd say"

"Jane…" It was Maura, trying for serious and failing as she started giggling, Nat coming to Ana's rescue.

"As someone who conducts regular inspections of Ana, I can guarantee she's not carrying a single excess pound" Ana flashed a triumphant grin at me before leaning in to give Nat a quick kiss to the top of her head.

"Thanks Blondie, nice to know someone's on my side" Maura pinched me in the ribs.

"Neither of you in fact are carrying any excess weight, in fact both of you are in excellent physical condition" I smiled as Nat chuckled.

"They're both even more delicious than normal I'd say Maura, good thing indulging in them doesn't put weight on or we'd both be as big as a house" Ana looked down at her, an eyebrow raised.

"So is that how you see us, indulgences?" Nat was unfazed.

"The sweet treat that's good to eat" I screwed up my face.

"Ew!" Natalie was about to say something when Maura smiled.

"I do not recall you having any issues when I…mmph" I'd clapped my hand over her mouth when I realised what she was going to say.

"Maura!" I admonished. "TMI" That got a laugh from everyone, before Nat kicked that particular can a bit further down the road.

"You forget Jane, we've heard you two at it before, so no real secrets here" I looked at her and was about to say something when I felt something warm and wet on my palm as I jerked it away; Maura had licked it, I'd forgotten I was still holding it over her mouth.

"Thanks babe" I surreptitiously wiped my hand on my jeans. Maura was unfazed, a sly smile appearing, I swear she's becoming more like Nat all the time.

"Well, you do not normally object to me licking you so…" I held up a finger and tried for a stern look as a smirk appeared on her face.

"Not another word babe" I turned to Ana. "If Liv can squeze into a tux, you'll be fine" She nodded as Natalie got a thoughtful look on her face.

"Liv'd probably prefer a tux, she apparently doesn't really dress particularly feminine, not unless it's a special occasion and Alex piles on a ton of pressure. I've only seen her in a dress that night at Blush, the rest of the time she dresses in jeans and slacks and such" I nodded.

"Yeah, given where she works there are issues with being seen looking too good. That's why I always dress practically at work, working in Sex Crimes'd be much worse" Maura nodded thoughtfully.

"I understand she has worn dresses occaisionally, usually something Alex has purchased for her to attend a special function and which she only wears to make Alex happy, but I agree she does dress down most of the time" Nat smiled a little wistfully.

"A tragedy really, she's gorgeous normally, the only time I've seen her in a dress was Blush's LBD night and she looked amazing. they both did, it's a shame she denies her looks like that, dressed up in heels and the right gown she'd be stunning" Ana smiled.

"The perfect compliment to Alex, who makes anything she wears look good" I shrugged, picking up my coffee.

"Never going to happen, especially not working in SVU" Nat smiled a little wickedly.

"Never say never Jane, the Ball, the LBD night at Blush, that night at the Intersection, you wear plenty of hot dresses and look amazing, it just takes a little encouragement, even for a tom-boy like you. Give us time, we'll wear her down, same as we did with you" I thought about it for a moment and then shook my head. Not Liv, not a chance.

"Sorry Nat, but I can't see it happening" I saw a calculating look appear in her eyes.

"You willing to put money on it Jane?" I was about to say yes when Ana shook her head.

"I wouldn't Jane, Liv versus Nat? Liv doesn't stand a chance" I thought about it for a moment, I was pretty sure Liv wouldn't go 'girly' as she derisively called dressing up, but on the other hand Nat was both enthusiastic and determined. I turned to Natalie, seeing her challenging look and made a quick decision

"Sure Nat, I'd pay real money to see you get Liv to turn up for work in a skirt and jacket and heels. How about a straight hundred" I smiled, wondering if she was willing to ante up. I should have known better.

"You're on" Ana just shook her head.

"Hope your good for it Jane, cause I think you've just done your money" I didn't think so, I knew Liv. I turned a skeptical look at her.

"You think?" She nodded decisively.

"Liv versus Nat, plus Maura and Alex, might as well hand over your money now" I thought about that, looking over at where Maura and Natalie were exchanging a meaningful look.

"No fair Nat, you didn't say you were getting help" She shrugged, trying to look innocent and failing.

"You didn't make that part of our bet, besides, the moment Alex hears about it she'll be all for it, as for Maura, well..." I turned to Maura.

"Babe..." She smiled happily.

"It will do Olivia good to open herself up to new things, plus Alex will be overjoyed to see Olivia embrace her feminine side" I frowned a little, if all three blondes were pushing her I'd probably just done my money, as Ana had said. I wondered if I should warn Liv. Hmmm, probably not, sometimes ignorance really is bliss, besides she'd just be pissed that we were betting on her, especially given what it was about.

Anyway, I'd happily pay up if it meant I got to see Liv turn up to work in something like Alex or Nat's suits. I'd get to pay out on her forever after that.

I sat there for a moment, thinking about what Nat had said. Had I changed so much? I remembered all the times they'd coaxed me into dresses and heels, the fact that I'd be wearing Nat's skirt suits in Boston, the whole evening gown and heels thing at the LAPD Ball. Little by little they'd worn me down, I didn't wear them to work, but I'd grown used to dresses and skirts when needed. I wondered at what point things had changed that much, because change they had. I couldn't pinpoint a specific time, it just became accepted that if the dress code was feminine, then that's what I wore, mostly to make Maura and Natalie happy.

Jesus I was so whipped.

Ana was right, Liv didn't stand a chance.


	10. Chapter 10

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**10 The Range**

Jane's viewpoint

"How's the wedding planning coming? Any luck with a venue?" I shrugged at Ana's words, not looking away from the target, squeezing off half a dozen shots, all in the centre mass 10 ring, before turning my head to look at Ana.

"I haven't really been keeping up with it, Maura drops some details here and there but mostly I leave it to them"

"You're joking right, I'd thought you'd be more involved than this, after all you're only doing this once" I stepped back from the lane and turned.

"Seriously?" I pulled the safety glasses off and laid them on the bench, followed by the ear defenders. "I'm leaving the planning in the hands of a certified genius, ably backed up by Natalie who's apparently a frustrated event planner and Alex who's apparently an anal retentive detail freak…" I shrugged, Maura and Natalie chatted about it several times a week, plus Alex Skyped in from New York at least once a week for a three-way planning session, Maura and Natalie together were capable of putting together fantastic things like The Intersection club nights or New Year's Eve, add Alex to the mix… "Anyway, I'm sure Nat's kept you in the loop" She shrugged.

"Mostly, it looks like it's going to be amazing, once they get a few things sorted. Y'know, minor details, like a venue, date, guest list, dresses, minor stuff" I grinned.

"All they'll let me do is turn up at the right time and place" She turned and snorted at that.

"Yeah right, as if. You worked out what you're wearing" She grinned nastily. "I'm sure you'll look lovely in that white princess-style dress Natalie was raving about" I knew she was revving me up so I just smiled.

"Yeah, as if" My smile widened to a grin as she rolled her eyes at me, before dragging us back to the subject while she reloaded her magazine with rounds out of the box. We were out at the FBI range as Ana got some time in; she was coming up for requalification later this month and wanted to make sure she was above the level required for the FBI's expert pistol rating.

"Do you know what you're wearing?" I looked up.

"You mean what we're wearing?" She paused as a smile appeared.

"I take it you want us both" I nodded once, of course I did, there wasn't a question I'd want them both with me. Ana nodded her head sagely. "Guessed as much, seeing Maura was having both Alex and Nat as bridesmaids" I looked down at the bench as I swapped out magazines, even though I could do that with my eyes closed, but it made a distraction.

"It'll be some kind of suit, Maura knows I don't want to be in a dress" Ana nodded once and settled the defenders over her ears before stepping up to the firing point in the lane next to mine, settling herself for a moment, facing to the right away from the lane, tapping the start button with her left hand. It was quiet for a few seconds, before the target came to a stop some 15 metres away and hung there, side on. It was programmed to randomly turn and face her for a few seconds then turn away. She stood there calmly for a bit before the target suddenly swung round, the dark outline coming to a stop facing her. Ana was already in action, spinning in place to face down the lane, partly dropping into a crouch, her right hand coming up as the left slammed up under her wrist, fingers wrapping round and steadying her aim as the first shot rang out.

Five seconds later the target flipped side on obscuring it, though you could see the torn paper from side on, showing where the shots had all gone. I nodded to myself. Ana had put ten rounds into it, all bar two inside the ten ring, the other two just outside it. Pushing the button to retrieve the target as she holstered her Glock, I wandered up next to her as we watched the target moving towards us. I nodded to myself, if that had been a bad guy he'd be deader than Julius Caesar right now. Ana picked up the conversation as the target approached.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that one out. You in a dress wasn't going to happen" We shared a glance before the target stopped in front of her. Almost all of her shots had gone through a circle less than three inches in diameter, with one shot almost two inches low and another inch and a half or so higher, leaving me frowning a little as I considered her shot grouping.

"The first shot was a fraction early, you shot as your hand came up" I indicated the lower shot. "The rest were well grouped, but they were starting to climb, not much but some" I let my finger drift up the shots before indicating the last, highest hole. "The last one, did you rush it?" Ana scowled at the target.

"Yeah, maybe, I also don't think I properly compensated for both recoil and the fact the gun was nine rounds lighter" I nodded sagely; it made sense.

"That sort of shooting will still be more than good enough to qualify, besides, if it'd been a gunman on the other end of those shots, all of them would have been pretty much instantly fatal" Ana's scowl held for a moment longer.

"I'd prefer it if all ten had been on target though" That was Ana, she was a perfectionist, never mind that she'd probably out shot more than 98% of her fellow agents, male and female, she still wasn't happy with her results. I could understand it though; when it came to shooting I felt the same way. Ana was good, damned good, I was just better. She shook her head again and moved back to the table to reload her Glock, stripping off the protective gear as she did while she glanced at me.

"You excited?"

"No, not really, it won't change anything between Maura and me, it's just a piece of paper" I rubbed at my right ear, the padding on the ear defender I'd been wearing was a bit worn on that side, it'd been irritating me all morning. "It won't change who we are"

"Nope, course not, but it is a very public statement of who and what you are" I thought that over as I watched her reload her Glock's magazine.

"It doesn't really mean that much to me, I'm not a very public person"

"Bull"

"What?"

"Tell that to everyone who's read about you or Maura over the last few years, the cases you've been involved with, plus especially the fact you're together"

"That's different, that's me being a cop, doing my job. I'm sure as hell no gay icon if that's what you're getting at"

"Maybe not to the public but to a lot of people in the LAPD you are" I turned to face her, curious.

"Me?" She nodded once.

"Yep, you and Maura both" I wasn't following her.

"Whadda you mean" She holstered her weapon then leaned back against the bench.

"Ever since the LAPD Ball, you, Maura and Nat have been role models to a lot of other gay people, especially lesbian cops" I frowned.

"What about you? I mean Nat's with you"

"I'm not LAPD, at the end of the day I'm considered a Fed, not LAPD whereas you three are each seen as being one of them"

"What about Brenda and Sharon? Don't people look up to them?"

"Not as many people know, after all they weren't out at the Ball, and they haven't exactly been too public about it so far"

"That'll change at the next Ball"

"Sure hope so" She hopped up to sit on the edge of the table. "Lots of people saw you and Maura, plenty more heard about it later, so you're public now" I thought about it, I suppose she was right, I'd decided that we wouldn't do anything to hide it at the Ball, we were a long way from Boston and no one here in the squad gave a fuck if we were gay.

"I guess" Ana nodded sagely.

"Lots of gay people in the Department look up to you, both of you" I turned to lean back against the bench next to her, turning my head to face her, ignoring the popping sounds from the far end of the range.

"I don't see it that way; I'm just doing my job"

"Just doing your job...right" She tipped her head to regard me. "To a lot of people who struggle with who they are, they see you, a famous cop, part of one of the highest profile squads in the LAPD, long history of solving high-profile crimes, Boston's first female homicide detective and youngest ever in Boston, as someone impressive, someone to look up to"

"That's just the job though, I was just doing what I'm paid for" Ana rolled her eyes.

"I'm not sure even you believe that" She looked over at me. "You've done all that, then come out as gay, your partner is one of the smartest, most beautiful and committed women I've ever met, together you've been an outstandingly effective team solving crimes, your record speaks for itself there, it's all over the net, been all over TV and the papers too. Then you both move out here, you're open about your sexuality at one of the LAPD's most public events and everyone, I mean everyone, was talking about our little performance at the Ball" I snorted.

"That just means 'everyone' must have too much time on their hands if they spend their time gossiping about us" She sighed.

"You don't get it do you Jane?" I wasn't following her.

"Get what?"

"Look, you went gay for one reason, Maura, right?" She grinned and gave me a wink. "Totally understandible reason, lots would for her, or you for that matter" I went to say something but she held her hand up as she kept talking. "Let me finish OK? You're a very good looking woman engaged to be married to another very good looking woman. You two together are striking, people notice you together and they're envious of how obviously happy you both are. On top of that you're both outstanding at your job, being gay's been no impediment to that either" I had to give her that.

"Yeah, I don't see the point though" She turned her head to look at me.

"Compare that with a young female beat cop, in the middle of a sea of male colleagues, and like we both know, too many cops behave like frat boys. She's either gay but still in the closet or maybe unsure of her sexuality, not sure if her being attracted to women is weird. God knows the average male beat cop's not going to be much help, their thoughts on lesbian's range from male fantasies about watching two lesbians go at it before they join in and have them both" I snorted at that, why in hell would I be interested in a guy if I was gay, let alone share Maura with them? Ana just nodded resignedly. "Yeah, God knows we've been asked enough times" She shook her head slowly at that particular stupidity then continued. "The other prevailing opinion is that lesbians are women who are frigid, can't get a guy and settle for a woman or who just need a fuck from a real man to set them straight" We exchanged a truly disgusted look, we'd both heard that last one too many times. "So our young lesbian cop is scared of what the other guys on her shift will say; will they ostracise her, will it hurt her career, will they trust her anymore to do her job, there's still a lot of prejudice out there, even if it is the twenty first century" I nodded.

"My Lieutenant back in Boston, Cavenaugh, old school cop, solid as they come, I thought he'd be fine, after all he'd signed off on enough commendations and citations over the years for my work, turned out to hate gays. Tried to make my life hell, he couldn't touch Maura, but me; he let it be known that I was fair game. Every sexist pig in the place took their best shot" I shrugged. "I gave as good as I got but I started getting all the shitty details, the crap assignments, or I'd be given the hardest cases and starved of resources" Ana grimaced.

"Unfortunately there are fools like that everywhere" I sighed in agreement, she wasn't wrong there.

"Yeah, another detective in homicide back in Boston, Riley Cooper, she's involved with Susie, one of Maura's criminologists, given Cavenaugh's treatment of me, they've kept it quiet, really quiet, just to avoid his BS" She nodded emphatically.

"Exactly. So lesbians worry about that sort of treatment, they wonder if the Department will support them, with good reason. Despite all the good words and policies and supportive statements from HR and Pope, that's all a bit terrifying to the average young female cop, then one of the force's top detectives and the chief medical examiner behave like being gay's the most natural thing in the world at the Ball"

"As does the head of Media and the FBI liaison"

"Yeah, we all behaved like being gay is nothing, right out there in front of everyone and word gets around. People talk about it, our young female cop talks about it, sometimes to their partners, hopefully the partner's supportive, they might go onto the unofficial LAPD forums and talk about it, it gets mentioned in the wider LA gay community, including comments in some of the LGBT media, it's a big thing for a lot of people"

"I'm surprised that it was us, I would have thought we weren't the first" Ana nodded once.

"We weren't, but a few lower-ranked officers felt intimidated or were hassled about it from other cops which made others a bit gun shy. That's why Andrea and Mikki weren't there; Andrea was concerned that it would cause Mikki grief for no good reason. They told us that over dinner at our place a month back, after Nat asked. They were really pissed, said that if they'd known about us being there they would have come and they're definitely going to this year's ball"

"I'd wondered about that, I mean Mendoza doesn't strike me as a shrinking violet about pretty much anything"

"It was Andrea, she'd heard of other gays suffering for being out in public in front of the LAPD, she didn't want Mikki to be on the receiving end of that"

"Is her boss Ruiz a problem?"

"Apparently not, but a couple of his Lieutenants and Sargeants are old school homophobes" I thought about that for a moment.

"If nothing's changed there, won't coming out at the Ball cause precisely the grief Andrea was worried about?" Ana rocked her hand in a so-so gesture.

"Maybe, maybe not, after all, Pope has six lesbians on his senior officer's team, that there's a statement all on its own" I thought about it then shook my head.

"Not many people know about that, though when Brenda and Sharon go public..." Ana nodded.

"Yeah, that'll really set the cat amongst the pigeons. The two most senior female officers on the force, gay" I frowned, thinking back at the comments I heard, and received, over the years, then spoke.

"For a lot of cops though, it'll just reinforce the stereotypes" She nodded agreeably.

"There are always going to be hold-outs, prejudices too hard wired to change, some people will feel threatened, they hate change or don't like gays for any number of stupid reasons. I mean some people still don't like Asians or Blacks for the same reasons" She shrugged. "There will always be lost causes. It's the ones who aren't lost, who will adjust that are important"

"I still don't feel like a role model" Ana shrugged again.

"Then don't think of it like that. Just be the outstanding cop you are and let that be your legacy. There's still an under-representation of women in the detective ranks, show everyone, even the sexist pigs, that being a woman, let alone a lesbian, is no impediment to being a damned good cop" I nodded and smiled.

"Now that, I can get on board with"


	11. Chapter 11

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**11 Revelations**

Anastasia's viewpoint

We were reconvening in FIDs conference room, yet another after-hours discussion so Jane had suggested that Natalie and Maura join us, that way we could head straight home afterwards.

I'd spent some time earlier this afternoon talking to Justice, which had been about as painful as pulling teeth; the info I'd finally dragged out of them though was disturbing, to put it mildly. Now I was getting to share the 'fun' around.

"I have the final figures on the Witsec deaths here in Los Angeles and its worse than we first thought" I got a collection of questioning looks and raised eyebrows as I continued. "In total nine Witsec protected people have died here in LA in the last four years, plus another who disappeared and reappeared back in Mexico" Sharon marginally beat Brenda, her voice reflecting her stunned surprise.

"Nine?"

"You're joking" I nodded.

"I wish I was; nine" Staring at me, Brenda's voice was full of sardonic disbelief.

"To lose one or even two might be mischance, but nine, that sounds like carelessness" I smiled at her joke before looking back down at my notes.

"One died in a jewelry store robbery gone wrong, shot by a security guard" Nat smiled.

"Looks like someone was sliding back into bad habits" I nodded and smiled as a glance passed between us; that had been Justice's take as well.

"Another died in a car accident, ran a red light and was collected by another car, a kindergarten school teacher would you believe?" Brenda smiled and looked at Sharon.

"I think we can discount that one" Sharon gave her a sideways glance and a tiny smile before speaking, her voice deadpan.

"A teacher? No, they don't really fit the profile" Maura leaned forward, an intrigued look on her face.

"And the others; were they all former cartel members?" I looked down at my notes once more although I already knew the answer.

"Yep, all seven remaining Witsec people were former Mexican cartel members, four were ex-Sinaloa, the others were from the Tijuana, Juarez and Gulf cartels, all dead in the last four years. Five of them at the hands of cops, all in Robbery / Homicide; three by Kennedy, one by Powell and Lieutenant Di Marco's one" There were stunned looks around the table. Sharon had given me the names of all Robbery/Homicide fatal OIS victims for the last five years and I'd spent the afternoon going through them, comparing them to a list of the Witsec deceased, that one provided by Justice's Witsec-cleared computer person.

"A tenth person, a former Sinaloa cartel accountant, they were the one who disappeared. She'd had an apparent attack of conscience, turned up at a Bureau office in Texas four years ago and handed over her set of books, the resultant investigation cost the Cartel tens of millions. She was put into Witsec and they gave her a new life as a bookkeeper for a studio here in LA. She didn't turn up for work one day about five months ago and an investigation started, she was eventually found in Mexico a week later, dead" I shook my head, trying to banish the description of how she'd been found from my mind. Brenda looked like she'd tasted something foul.

"That means we have potentially four members of Robbery/Homicide involved" Nat looked confused.

"Four, how do you figure that?" Sharon looked across at her.

"It's likely that each of their partners were involved, to provide an alibi for the OIS, that means that Di Marco's partner Julia Humphries is almost certainly involved, providing an alibi even if she's not the one's actually doing the shooting" Jane nodded as she looked over to Nat.

"Nat, cop partners are close, they spend most of their working day together, they work together, sit at adjacent desks, eat together, share stakeouts, many socialise together with their families out of hours. The chance of Di Marco pulling this off without his partner's knowledge and support are practically non-existent" I saw Nat look to me with an unspoken question so I nodded.

"For most of the time you've known me I've been a liaison officer, running solo. Before that though I've had partners, both in the Bureau and back in the Army, I was pretty close to some of them" She nodded.

"Do you miss that?" I waggled my hand in a noncommittal gesture.

"Yes and no. There's good and bad in every partnership, some were good at their jobs but had some personality traits that I didn't particularly care for. I've kinda got used to being a liaison officer" Brenda looked up.

"Besides, if you have a partner here, it's probably Jane" I looked across at Brenda in surprise. "You may not work with her all the time but you're close enough and work well together" I looked across to Jane and saw her thinking it over as well, before she looked up at me.

"Possibly" She grinned at me. "Someone's got to keep her out of trouble" I snorted.

"You; the hell you are, you can't even keep yourself out of trouble" I saw Maura and Natalie give a nice display of synchronized eye rolling as Brenda and Sharon smiled, before Maura shook her head, smiling indulgently at Jane. I saw Nat smirking at me and spoke, a little defensively.

"What?"

"Maura and I need to keep you out of trouble" We grinned at each other for a moment, I could tell she was thinking over all the trouble we'd got into together before Sharon dragged us back on track.

"You mentioned that seven Witsec protectees died; how did the other two non-OIS victims die?" I flipped open my notes.

"Lorenzo Medina, 31 year old male, formerly a Juarez cartel drug courier handler before he flipped. He was found dead in his apartment, together with a prostitute, both shot in the head, apparently killed during a robbery over two years ago" I glanced up to see everyone frowning, I'd done the same when I heard that, the coincidences were a little too pat.

Maura leaned forward in her chair.

"Was the case ever closed, a suspect found?" I shook my head.

"Nope, there was almost no evidence found, so the case is still open" She pursed her lips and sat back, saying nothing, obviously thinking about it. Brenda looked at her, then across at me.

"Gunshots to the head of both victims seems a little too careful for a robbery gone wrong" I nodded.

"So you'd think, but the case went nowhere" Brenda frowned as Sharon spoke.

"What about the other one, let me guess, an unexplained death too?" I nodded unhappily.

"Afraid so, Esteban Alonso, a former pimp manager for the Gulf Cartel, found dead in his bedroom with a 9mm gunshot to the head at short range, so short in fact that the shot had to have come from less than three feet away" Nat looked confused..

"Pimp manager, what's a pimp manager?" Jane jumped in.

"Someone in a gang who controls the actions of a number of pimps, makes sure each pimp's meeting his quota, that there are no turf fights about where each one's string of girls are operating, basically a mob's middle management position" Nat shook her head.

"Sounds more like a corporation than criminals" I smiled, this was an area I knew something about; I'd done a stint in organised crime at the Washington Field Office before my posting out to Seattle.

"That they are, more and more they've taken on the same trappings, partly because it's an efficient way to do things, partly because more and more senior criminals either have business degrees or employ advisors with MBAs" Nat just shook her head again.

"What's the world coming too?" Suddenly Maura leaned forward; something in her eye caught my attention.

"Which detectives were assigned to these two unsolved cases and do they have any connection to Robbery / Homicide?" I smiled for a moment at her perspicuity before turning to Sharon.

"I did some digging, it turns out the Medina case was assigned to a detective who had been recently assigned to Robbery / Homicide, Tony Di Marco" Brenda frowned; I could see her joining the dots.

"What about the other case?" I shrugged.

"It was a Robbery / Homicide case too but I didn't have the details about who was lead officer" She nodded to herself for a moment then looked across at Sharon, their eyes meeting.

"Sharon, could you please get a list of all Robbery / Homicide OIS cases going back at least four years?" Sharon nodded slowly, obviously they were both thinking along the same lines, it didn't surprise me really, those two, for all their personality and exterior differences often thought in almost spooky synch. She stood and moved towards the door.

"Be back in a few minutes" I saw her head to her desk as Brenda spoke.

"Jane here suggested that there might be more than one bad apple in Robbery / Homicide and it looks like she's right"

"Wish I hadn't been" Jane muttered, loud enough for us to hear, before she looked up at Brenda "What are you thinking?"

"I think we need to sit down and look for patterns across all the OIS involving Robbery / Homicide for the past few years, see if there's a common theme to any of them" I nodded, seeing Maura and Nat nodding as well.

"If we're right, it means that there are at least four rotten apples in Robbery Homicide, maybe more" Nat looked between us.

"More?" I nodded slowly, thinking it through.

"If they could recruit one or two cops, why not recruit more, it must have been getting more and more difficult to explain away Kennedy and Powell's OIS, this way the shootings have been spread across another pair of detectives, who are we to assume that they stopped at one pair of accomplices" Jane's voice was quiet.

"Hmm, what do you think they're offering to make cops turn to killers?" Brenda's voice was quiet.

"I'd hazard a guess and suggest it's one of the three classic motivations"

"Classic?" It was Jane. "What do you mean?"

"There are a number of primary motivations for people doing things which betray their allegiance" Brenda had been sitting quietly at the end of the table, letting us talk it out, that was often how she worked, let her people talk it out, occasionally stepping in to steer the direction but mostly letting her people have their head. "Ego, money and revenge, the same ones that motivate the majority of spies and defectors" Maura looked across at Brenda and nodded.

"In this case it could be ego, driven by the need to act as some sort of vigilante" She frowned for a moment. "Unlikely but possible, however a far more likely reason would be money, a detective's remuneration is not all that generous and a suitably appropriate monetary incentive may explain the decision" Jane nodded.

"I don't think they're doing it out of revenge, if they were killing criminals indiscriminately I could kinda understand it but this is way too targeted" She looked round the table. "I think we all know who'd pay well to have people in Witsec killed" We nodded as Nat put it into words.

"The cartels have been moving into the states for the last few years, they've had a few setbacks, like their attacks last year, but that won't stop them for long" I nodded to back her up.

"This way they get revenge on people who've betrayed them while staying at a distance"

"We need to find several things" Brenda frowned. "How they're finding these people in Witsec, how they're contacting the cartels, if that in fact is who's paying them to do it, and how many might be involved"

Just then Sharon walked back in, a sheaf of papers in her hand.

"I can't help with the first two, but I may have a lead on the third one" She dropped the papers on the desk. "This is a list of all the Robbery / Homicide OIS cases for the last five years" I looked over at the sheaf of papers and felt my eyebrows rise. Maura beat me to it.

"Exactly how many are we looking at Sharon?" Sharon looked down at the list.

"One hundred sixty four" At our shocked reactions she held up her hand. "That's total investigations, most of which were cleared, officers shooting in response to being shot at, that sort of thing. Sometimes it's three or four officers all discharging their weapons at the same target, each is considered a seperate OIS investigation. The total number of fatal OIS is fourteen" She frowned as we glanced around the table in shock.

"It's a high number but not totally out of line with a division that investigates and arrests people who commit murder in the course of their crimes, many of them don't particularly wish to surrender peacefully. For example Major Crimes over the same period has a similar number of OIS, fewer fatals though" Brenda nodded once.

"Assume that we ignore all but the fatal ones, how many officers are we looking at?" Sharon leaned forward and separated the papers into two bundles, pushing the larger pile to one side and then spending a few seconds sorting the smaller pile before she spoke, leafing through the sheets in her hand as she did.

"In date order we have Kennedy, Kennedy again, Powell, Richards, Di Marco, Cortez, Powell, Schmidt, Chan, Lopez, Di Marco, Taylor, Osmond and Kennedy once more" Nat looked up from her notepad where she'd been keeping score.

"So fourteen fatals committed by ten officers" Sharon nodded.

"I think we can discount Richards though, his was a pretty straightforward case, a suspect tried shooting it out at a 7/11 robbery gone wrong" She looked down at the names again. "Schmidt's probably clean as well, he was only three months off retiring, he took early retirement after the shooting" At their looks she clarified her words. "During a shootout with a gang, his shot missed and went through a window, hitting a child inside, a head shot, the boy died instantly"

There were grimaces around the room; it was a cop's worst nightmare. Finally Jane shook herself out of the collective reverie and spoke.

"Assume then that Powell and Kennedy were the first, based on the date of their first Witsec-related shootings" There were nods all round. "That means that DiMarco and Humphries somehow got involved; recruited to join them, with possibly some of the others also roped in" Nat looked up from her list.

"Discounting Kennedy, Powell and DiMarco, plus Schmidt and Richards that leaves us with Cortez, Chan, Lopez, Taylor and Osmond" I suddenly frowned.

"Taylor? Commander Taylor?" Sharon nodded.

"He was involved in an OIS, the same one as Lopez actually, a gang targeting small bank branches. They'd hit several before the Robbery / Homicide team worked out their pattern, they were waiting for them at the next bank they hit, most went quietly but one didn't, he decided to shoot it out and both Taylor and Lopez fired, both shots were fatal, so both qualified" Brenda cleared her throat.

"God knows I'm no fan of the man..." She paused as a wave of agreement swept the table, only Jane didn't have to deal with Taylor regularly, the rest of us unfortunately did. "But even I can't see him being a part of something like this" I nodded; the man was a sexist pig and a scheming fool, but a murderer, nah, not likely. Maura looked around the table.

"That would seem to discount Detective Lopez as well, would you not agree?" We looked around the room and nodded in general agreement as Nat ran her pen through two more names.

"That leaves Cortez, Chan and Osmond" Brenda turned to Jane.

"I'd like you to work with Sharon and me on this, doing the legwork as we look into all three officers please" Jane nodded once as Brenda turned her attention to Maura.

"Could I please ask you to take a look at the autopsy reports of those three shootings? It's not that I don't trust Doctor Morales' original findings, but you're coming at it from a different perspective" Maura smiled.

"Of course, I will commence first thing in the morning" That set off a wave of checking watches and phones; it was starting to get late. Brenda nodded.

"Time to wrap up for the evening" She looked round the table. "I'm sorry to hold you all back" We stood and started gathering our things when Nat spoke up.

"One question though, how do you go about recruiting a cop to become an assassin? Hey Joe, you want to kill people as a hobby?" Maura frowned.

"I will grant you it does rather seem far-fetched" Jane nodded.

"You're not wrong; we're going to need some definitive evidence before we can take this to anyone senior" Brenda tilted her head at Jane in acknowledgement.

"That's the evidence we have to find" She looked across at me. "We also need to find some way to link Kennedy and Co back to Justice" I nodded, that would be my job, I was the only one with access to Justice, they were pissed enough that I was sniffing around, no way they'd sit still for someone from the LAPD sticking their noses in. Jane looked round the room, taking us all in.

"Looks like we're all going to be busy"


	12. Chapter 12

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**12 Party Hard Part 1**

Brenda's viewpoint

Well, this was it, the moment of truth. I'd agreed to this an age ago, well actually Sharon had then told me, so I couldn't put it off any more, much as I'd like too. I looked down at my clothes, if you could call them that, and swallowed. I couldn't believe that I was actually going through with this, what was I thinking? I was almost fifty for god's sake, not in my prime like Natalie or Maura.

"Shit Brenda, we'd better stand between you and Sharon, otherwise she may jump you on the spot" I looked up at Natalie's voice, seeing the smile there, matched by Maura's. I shook my head ruefully.

"I don't know about this" I muttered, then turned to the mirror. "I'm not so sure this is a good idea" Maura stepped forward and laid her hand on my shoulder.

"Brenda, you look fantastic, Sharon will not know what hit her" Natalie leaned against the wall, her eyes openly and frankly appraising me before smiling.

"Let me put it this way Brenda, if you'd worn that when you and Sharon were first getting interested in each other, you wouldn't have gone home alone after the first date" I felt myself blushing a little at their praise.

"I still don't think I'm ready for this" Natalie's laugh was instant.

"You don't? I know Sharon's not going to be ready for you like this, god help her" Maura nodded in agreement.

"Brenda, you have a slim, toned figure, long legs, firm breasts and lovely hair, what you are wearing emphasises those assets in a way that Sharon will be powerless to resist" I stared into the mirror, seeing the woman there biting into the corner of her bottom lip in obvious nervousness.

When I'd been told I was wearing a black dress and asked for my measurements I'd been relieved, nothing wrong with that, or so I'd thought. When it came to these two, I should have known better. After arriving at Maura and Jane's we'd had a coffee with everyone before Nat and Maura had bundled me into the main bedroom. I'd last seen Sharon being led off by Ana and Jane, god knows what she was doing, probably something equally mortifying.

They'd handed me a skimpy black lace thong and matching silk and lace barely there strapless bra still in their Agent Provocateur bag and told me to go get changed in the bathroom. After changing into what was a really lovely set of very soft, very expensive and very sexy lingerie, I had walked out to see them waiting for me, my vanity had appreciated the smiles and positive comments but when they held up the 'dress' my self confidence had plummeted.

It was black latex for god's sake, it would cling to me like a second skin and everything would be on show. Sleeveless, the area above the sweetheart bodice was a thin mesh that showed the skin underneath, hence the strapless bra, the hem was a good six inches above the knee and I swallowed at the thought of wearing it. I tried to back out but they were adamant, telling me I'd look great, that it'd fit perfectly.

Too perfectly was my worry, that dress was so tight I might as well wear nothing. Looking at it on the hangar I knew I'd die of embarrassment, the reality was even worse. I pulled it on, feeling the tightness of the material as it slid over my body, both of them helping get it settled, before I stood there in front of the mirror. The sight was enough to make me cringe; I looked like some shameless porn star.

"Oh god, I can't go out like this, everyone will be laughing at me" The disbelief on Natalie's face was plain.

"What? Laughing? Drooling more likely" Maura placed her hands on my shoulders and turned me to face her.

"Brenda, you need to listen to me. You look amazing and therefore you will attract a lot of attention from other people tonight, you do look remarkable, so stay close to Sharon. In fact you will need to stay close to each other, both of you will be hit on, so be ready" Nat nodded emphatically.

"Sure thing, Sharon's going to be just as hot as you, so keep your eyes on her too, she'll need saving too" I looked up at Natalie, my mouth twisting with annoyance.

"You keep telling me she'll look good but you won't tell me what she's wearing" They exchanged a glance, wearing matching sly grins as Maura spoke.

"Why spoil the surprise Brenda? The pleasure of discovery is one far too good to pass up" Natalie got a far away look in her eyes before coming back to us.

"I remember the first night we went to Club Night at The Intersection, Jane had no clue what Maura was going to be wearing" She suddenly grinned at me, obviously a very happy memory. "Oh god Brenda, the look on her face when she saw Maura was priceless" I looked at them both, taking in how they were dressed.

Natalie in a pair of almost indecently tight black leather trousers and a matching tight leather halter crop top zipped together at the front, Maura in a clinging green latex dress, exposing the swell of her breasts and her legs, both looked stunning but they were a decade younger than me, I was no spring chicken and I couldn't shake the feeling that I looked a fool dressed like this. Natalie must have read my thoughts.

"Don't worry Brenda, we wouldn't let you out dressed like that if we didn't think you looked great" She smiled. "Tell you what, if you don't believe us, wait until Sharon see's you, you can make your mind up based on her reaction"

With no real comeback to that I had to let it drop as we helped each other get ready, fixing each other's hair and make up. We ended up with heavier, more dramatic makeup than I ever normally used, plus heavily tousled hair, definitely not my usual style, more a club look; only appropriate really as we were off to LA's hottest lesbian night club, The Intersection.

The reality of that hit me, we were off to a notorious lesbian pick up joint, full of celebrities and beautiful people, what in hell was I doing there, I wouldn't fit in, I'd be a joke, everyone would laugh at me, what was I doing? Natalie must have seen the oncoming panic attack as she snapped her fingers loudly and spoke, breaking my concentration.

"Brenda...BRENDA!" I looked up at her, focussing on her smirk. "Get your head out of your head and concentrate on how Sharon's going to handle you dressed like that, not to mention what she's going to want to do to you" Maura chuckled.

"Or what you will wish to do to her when you see what she is wearing" I nodded hesitantly, still not believing them, before I sat down, pulling on my favourite black heels, well they were Sharon's favourite actually, which made them mine, she'd made her appreciation known enough times to ensure I'd wear them when I wanted to impress her, I just hope I didn't fall off the four inch heels on the dance floor.

We made our way out into the main room, to find them waiting for us, Jane and Ana looked fantastic, but Sharon...

I felt all the moisture flee my mouth, looking at her there dressed like that, as it pooled somewhere else entirely. I'd always loved her legs, in a LBD, peeking out from under her tailored business skirts, emerging from her dressing gown at breakfast, best of all being wrapped in them, but now...

Sharon was wearing black latex stockings that clung to her legs, highlighting and moulding her already spectacular legs into something to drool over; perched on a set of black patent leather four inch spike heels they looked endless. The stockings were thigh high but still ended a few inches below a tight turquoise dress in something like vinyl with a cut out over her décolletage, it was short enough that my eyes were drawn to that gap between stockings and skirt; I already wanted to run my tongue all over that band of flesh, before exploring higher. Her butt was covered, but the bottom of her skirt was short enough that I knew she'd be the subject of hungry stares all night.

I looked up into her green eyes, seeing the uncertainty and nerves there, mixed with love and lust as she ran her eyes over me equally appreciatively, feeling warmth grow within me, just knowing what she was going to do to me tonight, my voice was low and full of desire.

"So Sharon, do you approve?" Sharon ran her eyes up and down my body slowly once again; taking her time, taking me in with a hungry gaze before she nodded then spoke, her voice low and a little throaty. I knew that sound, she was very turned on.

"Oh yes, absolutely" I smiled a little, a throbbing need at my core ignited by the obvious want in her eyes. I licked my lips as I desperately dragged my eyes from her, before I forgot all about going out tonight. I turned to look at Jane and Ana, only to find they weren't helping. Jane was wearing black leather pants similar to Natalie's but the top was a matching leather bustier, encased like that, perched on high heels, she was an amazon, standing tall and strong and judging by the predatory smile on Maura's lips, just what Maura wanted.

Natalie was walking over to Ana, who stood there in a red dress, vinyl by the look of it, her lush curves drawing the eye over her body and down to her high heel clad feet, I'd always known Anastasia had a great body, but wrapped up like that she was even more amazing, an opinion Natalie obviously shared as she stepped into her lover's arms for a passionate kiss. Watching them lose themselves in a kiss like that was stoking my own fires even hotter, which wasn't helping my self control one little bit.

I looked over to Sharon again, to see her nibbling at the corner of her lip before she looked up at me.

"Do I look ok honey?" I caught the undertone of uncertainty, if I was having issues with this, Sharon, who was 55 must be having the same misgivings, if not worse. I looked her up and down, taking my time, quite blatantly ogling her, she looked amazing and I wanted her right then and there.

"Better than ok Sharon" I shook my head, seeing a smile appear at my words. "Wow" I heard a low chuckle from Jane.

"What did I tell you Sharon, I knew she'd approve" I looked across to see Jane there with her arm around Maura, a happy grin on her face.

I looked back at Sharon, to see that smirk that just screams sexy and playful and everything she is to me and I had to look down, before she saw just how much I wanted her, needed her right now. I saw her feet appear in my vision as she walked towards me as I slowly lifted my eyes up the length of her sinfully sexy legs and over her tightly packaged body, finally coming to rest in her sparkling green eyes, which seemed darker than normal, maybe it was her contacts, as she leaned in to whisper into my ear.

"I cannot wait to have you tonight Brenda" I sucked in my breath, realizing that wasn't her contacts, it was naked desire I was seeing in her eyes. Before I could respond she leaned in even closer and her lips dropped onto my neck, drawing a gasp at the contact, her lips lighting a fire that made me want to combust right then and there.

Letting my head drop to the side I heard a gentle moan, before realising with embarrassment the sound had come from me. I opened my eyes, which had somehow dropped shut, expecting the others to be smirking at me, but instead I saw Maura snuggled in Jane's embrace, both their eyes closed as they revelled in the contact. Natalie and Ana were still kissing, gentler now than their initial passion-filled efforts, now it was soft and teasing and full of love, both of them smiling gently as their hands rested on each others hips.

I was about to take Sharon's hips in mine when there was a tone from a phone on the table, Maura unwinding herself from Jane with regret to walk over and pick it up, her lips quirking in a smile as she read the note.

"I am sorry to have to bring this to a temporary halt but our car is here, perhaps we should gather our things and be on our way" I nodded with regret and pulled back, the things Sharon was doing with her lips were rapidly exhausting my self-control, if we didn't stop now we'd never get going. I pulled back a little and smiled at the tiny pout on her lips.

"Don't worry sweetie, that was wonderful and I can't wait to do a lot more of that when we're alone" The pout disappeared, replaced by a wicked grin, one I was sure she was seeing on my lips too.

"C'mon Brenda, let's get going before I have my wicked way with you"

"Oh sweetie, you're gonna have your way with me, right after I have mine with you" She stepped away from me and grinned.

"Promises promises" Feeling naughty and bold I leaned in again.

"Oh Sharon, when it comes to you I always keep my promises" The narrowing of her eyes told me I'd hit my target, as I smirked and turned away, knowing this was going to be one hell of a night.

One limo ride later and we were dropped at the kerb in front of The Intersection as I groaned at the length of the line to get in. It didn't faze the others though; they led us past the queue and up to the head of the line, ignoring the crowd's appreciative cat calls and shouts, to where we were greeted with enthusiasm by the door staff, an extremely toned-looking red-haired woman with a broad Irish lilt and a dark man-mountain of muscle who looked like he bench-pressed cars in his spare time.

"Ladies, so good to have you back again, we've missed you" There was laughter and greetings all round, before the woman spoke again. "My god, who do we have here, who are these gorgeous creatures" It took a moment to realise she was referring to Sharon and I, before I felt myself blushing. Jane laughed.

"Aisling, met Sharon and Brenda, they work with us" I looked up to see myself being appraised by a pair of bright green eyes. "Sharon, Brenda, meet Aisling, she and Cletus here handle security here at The Intersection" The smile that accompanied Aisling's appraising gaze was in equal measure friendly and predatory as she took us both in.

"Ladies, you are both very, very welcome. Normally I'd give you the lecture about keeping your dates close, given the sharks that swim inside, especially given how good you both look, but you're with the biggest sharks of all tonight, so they'll keep you safe" I smiled and nodded as the huge black man spoke, his voice surprisingly gentle, I was expecting something like a rock crusher maybe but instead he sounded like a merchant banker.

"It's good to see you ladies, it's been too long, it's always easier when you visit, the trash are a bit better behaved when you're in the house" Ana laughed.

"We don't want to do you out of a job guys" There was general laughter as Aisling unhooked the rope.

"We'll try and drop round for a drink and a chat later, OK?" There were nods and smiles all round as we thanked them for letting us in, before we plunged into the noisy darkness within.

The floor was full of people dancing close to a thumping beat. Natalie and Maura led the way round the floor to a set of doors, pushing through and leading us downstairs. We passed through a further series of doors, each one cutting the sounds down a little further, until the final one took us into a basement restaurant, quiet enough to enjoy both the food and conversation.

We were met with a smile by the female maître d' who quickly led us to a table, greeting the others by name and smiling widely when we were introduced, before departing with a promise to send over a waitress quickly to take our drinks orders. I looked after her with a speculative look and then turned to look at Natalie and Maura.

"I get the impression you're all well known here?" Natalie and Jane shrugged while Maura smiled before Ana spoke.

"We had an interesting adventure here on our first night, we dealt with an actress here who was hitting on Jane, well Nat and Maura did really. The actress and her posse weren't particularly welcome anyway, after that incident she left and hasn't been back, much to most people's relief. Word got around after that" Jane smiled.

"The next time here one woman wouldn't leave Maura alone, so Ana dealt with her and then handed her over to Aisling; apparently she bounced quite hard when they tossed her out. We also intervened once or twice when someone was doing something stupid, after that word got around not to mess with us and that we're cops to boot. Ever since then things have been a bit quieter" Sharon nodded.

"That explains the warm welcome from the people on the door" There was general laughter before Jane spoke.

"Kinda, plus Aisling at first thought we were all in some sort of open relationship because of something that happened here on our first night. Ever since then she's let it be known that she's interested in us, not too intrusive, just in a 'keep me in mind' sort of way" I laughed, I could see the attraction of worming your way into an open relationship with these four, they were all gorgeous and tonight's clothes were just making that even more obvious.

Dinner was nice, not fantastic but the company more than made up for it. I was actually picking up a quite different vibe from our friends tonight, less constrained, more free, the laughter was easier, the conversation flowing and full of teasing, some of it quite blatantly sexual, even Jane had relaxed, far more so than I was used to seeing from our intense detective. Over dinner it came out that they had been here several times now and each night had been memorable, not just for the club but for the aftermath. I nodded to myself, realising that was the difference I was seeing.

Tonight was about shedding inhibitions, they were all letting go and giving in to the moment, enjoying the chance to just be lovers out for a night of wild fun and teasing with their closest friends, something that made me feel warm just being here with them, to be accepted and to be part of their night.

Casually glancing around I noticed how many glances, looks and outright appraising stares were being directed at our table, though given how good the others looked I wasn't surprised.

Honestly, all four of them looked stunning, they could have anyone they wanted with a look and a smile but just as honestly though they had eyes for none bar the one they loved. For all their teasing there was a undertone of love and closeness amongst all four of them that I found simply amazing, even more so as they had extended that same feeling to Sharon and I, something I was so grateful for.

I smiled as Natalie wound her arm around Sharon's neck and kissed her cheek while Jane took a photo, then laughed as Sharon blushed at the image shown to her, before Jane passed the phone across to Natalie and I found myself with Jane and Ana cuddling close on each side for a photo. Natalie looked down at the shot and laughed.

"Alex and Liv are gonna be so jealous they're not here" Ana nodded.

"One day" Sharon leaned forward.

"You haven't brought them here yet?" Natalie shook her head.

"No, they've never been in town on a Club Night; shame really, I know they'd have a ball" Jane laughed, gesturing at Maura and Natalie.

"Besides, can you imagine what these two would do with them, what they'd end up wearing?" There were grins all round before Maura spoke.

"When you have such good material with which to work, the job is easy" She waved in our direction. "Sharon and Brenda being a case in point" I blushed, before looking over at Sharon and smiling, appreciating her all over again, I'd almost managed to forget just how provocatively we were dressed, till I looked down and saw the tight latex stretched over my breasts and the expanse of my uncovered thighs, feeling a tingle of embarrassment at how much of me was on display.

A few minutes later I was following them upstairs and out into the pounding beat of the dance floor, where we lost ourselves in the beat, the rythm and the heat of the crowd, none more so than our group, as we danced close, enjoying each other and our friend's company. We'd take breaks away from the floor to cool down and rehydrate at Maura's insistence, fortunately we had a VIP enclosure to ourselves, something I wasn't used to but really appreciated.

As we danced I realised that we were being watched, in curiosity, in appraisal but mostly in appreciation and more than a little envy. I could see the looks, it was obvious that the others were the centre of attention, but we were attracting our own attention, both good and bad.

I was on my way back from the ladies after freshening up when I was intercepted by a woman in her mid to late thirties, a bottle blonde, she was with another woman, all curly brunette hair, both wearing so little they made my dress look like a nun's habit.

"You interested in a dance gorgeous? I'd love to dance with you" I smiled; the attention was kinda nice even if I wasn't interested. Still it didn't hurt to be polite.

"Thank you, but no, I'm happy here with my girlfriend"

"Oh come on I can show you a much better time than she can" I frowned at the inference.

"I very much doubt that" The blonde wasn't taking no for an answer.

"You deserve someone better than her, besides she's kinda nice but way too old for you" I tried not to let a scowl out but the other, brunette woman must have caught my expression, she was looking a little concerned.

"I don't think this is a good idea Cissy, you know who they're here with"

"So? I'm just offering her a good time Tammy, much better than the one she was looking at" I frowned.

"Perhaps you should listen to your friend" The woman, Cissy was it, screwed up her face.

"Huh?" I turned to look at the brunette, trying to hold in a scowl, though I could hear the hardness appearing in my voice.

"Tell her what you meant" Tammy looked around nervously.

"Her friends, they're all cops, plus the club loves them, they'll toss us out if they think we're causing them trouble"

"I'm not causing any trouble, just having some fun" I frowned.

"I beg to disagree, but there is one thing you need to know" They both looked a little confused.

"What's that?"

"All those women, the cops your friend was talking about?" They nodded. "I'm their boss" Tammy just gaped, while Cissy was openly skeptical.

"No fucking way, you?"

"Yep, so you can toddle off and bother someone else, while I try and forget the fact that you just insulted my girlfriend, who is also a cop, or you can hang around and deal with the consequences. Your choice" Cissy ran her eyes up and down me.

"I call bullshit on that, you're no cop" I shrugged.

"Have it your way" I flipped open my clutch and pulled out my badge, the others had insisted I should bring it with me, I could see why now. Flashing it at them, I smiled. "Now I've established my bona fides, are you going to take a hike or do I have to escalate the matter?" Cissy was definitely stupid, still protesting.

"I ain't done anything wrong" My voice had started to take on some of the tone I used in interrogation, something that obviously Tammy picked up on, Cissy was too busy being pissed to notice.

"I don't know, a public nuisance charge might be a good place to start" I was interrupted by a warm voice in my ear and a hand at my back.

"Trouble honey?" I turned and gave Sharon a quick kiss.

"Not at all, this is Tammy and Cissy and they were just leaving" I gave them a filthy glare. "Weren't you?" Cissy was adamant.

"No" Tammy was less stupid.

"Yeah, we were just going" She started tugging on Cissy's arm, as the other woman fought her.

"I'm not going anywhere. I've done nothing wrong" Sharon smiled, a little coldly, a little of scary Commander Raydor appearing.

"I don't know, you're upsetting my girlfriend, which qualifies as something in my book. Now you have thirty seconds to make yourself scarce before I personally throw you out on the street" Sharon looked Cissy over speculatively. "I wonder how high you'll bounce when you hit the sidewalk" Cissy looked Sharon over in disbelief.

"You, don't make me laugh, bitch" Sharon looked at me and smiled sweetly.

"Can't say I didn't try" As I went to speak Cissy moved to push Sharon but she'd seen it coming. Turning, Sharon caught Cissy's left hand in her right and locked it between her fingers, pushing it back and up, the sudden shooting pain and Sharon's leverage sending Cissy to her knees, a startled yelp escaping her. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Ana then Jane shooting to their feet, obviously concerned, before I returned my attention to Sharon, who was talking to Cissy, not loudly, but her voice easily heard.

"Now then, we've established I can kick your ass out of here, do I have to prove it in front of everyone or are you going to leave us alone?" I was a little startled, I hadn't expected Sharon's move, but had to say something, especially as people were watching.

"Don't break anything sweetie, I'd hate to have to give a statement about how you had to defend yourself from an unprovoked attack" I got a slight turn of Sharon's head and a sly wink.

"Well if Cissy here agrees to make herself scarce, we can let everything drop" She turned back to look at her victim. "How about it?" At Cissy's desperate nod Sharon let her hand go. Turning she reached out a hand for mine. "C'mon honey, I want to dance" I smiled and took her hand, then looked at Cissy, who was climbing to her feet.

"Have a good night girls, somewhere else" Without a backwards glance we turned and walked back to our table, the crowd moving out of our way, some of them nodding in acknowledgement, stepping up into the VIP enclosure we got a raucous reception from the girls.

"Awesome!" It was Natalie, a huge grin on her face. "That was great" Ana was similarly enthusiastic.

"Nice Sharon, word'll soon get round, I don't think you'll be bothered again, well at least not tonight" Jane was looking at Sharon with a speculative look.

"That was a nice move Sharon, I didn't know you do martial arts" Sharon shrugged as she sat.

"I learnt some judo when I was a beat cop, its all about deflecting other people's energy" She shrugged. "I'm a little rusty, but fortunately that wasn't a challenge" Jane nodded, her eyes narrowed, before looking at Ana, getting a nod in return.

"If you're interested, we'd like to do a little light sparring with you, neither of us know any judo and it'd be good to learn" Maura's eyes widened in surprise.

"Jane..." Jane looked back at her.

"Really light sparring, I promise" Sharon was dismissive.

"I'm not that good and really out of practice and I most certainly am not good enough to spar with you two" She looked at Ana, then back at Jane. "I've heard the stories about you both in the gym, I'm happy to leave the hand to hand combat to you two" I smiled and slid my hand around Sharon's waist. I'd heard about these two as well, the grapevine was full of stories of young officers who'd foolishly challenged them, only to get thrashed mercilessly.

"Besides, I like Sharon as she is, without any bruises or broken bones, got it?" I got a pair of reluctant nods. "Now where were we?" Sharon smiled.

"I was about to head out on the dance floor with my girlfriend" I smiled at the invitation and took her extended hand, feeling eyes on us as I followed her out onto the floor to loose ourselves amongst the crowd.

The rest of the night passed in a bit of a blur of dancing, music and fun, when I wasn't dancing with Sharon we were swapping with the others, I danced with each of them, their movements close and sensual and I found my arousal was rising as they did, at one point I found myself sandwiched between Maura and Ana, their bodies deliberately rubbing and brushing against mine, to the point I finally left the floor a bundle of tightly stretched nerves, all taunt and singing with lust and arousal, to be pulled into Sharon's arms and kissed like there was no tomorrow, she'd obviously been watching. We were getting catcalls and whistles from onlookers, not that I cared, I was here with the woman I loved and for as long as I was in her arms nothing else mattered.

Aisling and Cletus both stopped by at different points during the night. I have to say Aisling's appreciative looks did wonders for my ego, she was impressive enough that I doubted she lacked for company, to have someone like that appreciating you in a distinctly sexual way was flattering, to see that same look turned on Sharon was even more so, given I knew Sharon had eyes only for me, the same as I had for her.

"I'm obviously fishing in the wrong stream" I looked over at her words, watching as Aisling sipped her scotch. "If I'd known that there were cops like you lot here in LA I'd have been spending more time in cop bars" I laughed at her regretful tone.

"I'm afraid there aren't too many cops like Jane and Ana here" I suddenly remembered Mikki Mendoza. "The only other one I know's already taken" She shook her head.

"Bloody hell, that's just my luck" Maura leaned forward.

"We do have some friends we must bring here one club night, a detective and an attorney from New York, I am sure you will like them" Natalie laughed at Aisling's sudden interest.

"Hell yeah, Alex is very femme and Liv's so butch she'll push all your buttons, both are gorgeous, just remember they're together and Liv carries a gun" Aisling scowled and then grinned.

"Bitches, get me all interested and then tell me I can't touch" Sharon smiled.

"Life's not fair is it" Ailing pushed out a fake, sad pout.

"No it bloody well is not!"


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

I was asked by a guest about the previous Club Night; for all the details check out Chapters 58, 59 and 60 of Intersecting Lines.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**13 Party Hard Part 2**

Sharon's viewpoint

The limo deposited us back at Jane and Maura's just in time and a good thing too; none of us were in any fit state to be driving, as it was I'd had Brenda curled up in my lap for most of the trip as we kissed and cuddled. The others were in no better shape, next to us Maura had straddled Jane and was kissing her as Jane's hands cradled her butt while Natalie was occupying Ana's lap on the seat facing us as they kissed and whispered to each other.

Normally I'd be nowhere near this uninhibited in public, but the combination of the build-up, seeing Brenda dressed like that all night, how we'd danced together so close, the erotic atmosphere in the car on the way home and the knowledge that these were our friends had pushed any inhibitions aside, this was a night for fun.

We stumbled inside, not helped by the fact that Brenda had both arms around me and didn't want to let go, not that I wanted her to, the others had stopped there in the foyer and looked at us, smiling.

"Thanks for coming with us tonight" It was Ana. "It looks like you had as much fun as we did" I smiled and nodded and felt Brenda's head move on my shoulder as she nodded as well. Natalie gave us a wicked grin.

"Wasn't that worth agreeing to dress up?" I saw the smiles and had to grin back, I'd had one thought since I'd first seen Brenda dressed like that and she'd confessed to me that she'd been consumed by similar thoughts, once I got her alone I was going to let myself enjoy full access to the delights of my girlfriend's body. I knew Brenda had exactly the same intentions, so I doubted we were going to get much sleep tonight. As if she'd read my mind Jane grinned.

"We'll see you in the morning" Maura gave a cheeky grin before leaning up to whisper something in her ear, getting a chuckle in return before Jane looked at us again. "Late morning, very late" I was about to say something when I felt Brenda's fingertips teasing the back of my thigh, just above the stocking, before slowly rising higher, oh she was ready, willing and able all right.

Natalie, then Maura broke away and moved to wrap us in hugs and kisses, followed by Jane and Ana, I couldn't help noticing how aroused they were, you could see it in their eyes, feel it in their bodies, none of us were going to get much sleep, at least not for a while.

"Thanks for coming tonight…" It was Jane. "…we had fun" Brenda smirked.

"We did too, lots" Natalie smiled wickedly, reaching out and entwining her fingers with Anastasia's, tugging her gently down the hall towards their guest room, before looking back over her shoulder at us.

"And the night's just begun, let the games begin" I felt my mouth go a little dry, I knew what she was referring to, their little game on Club Nights, one we were playing tonight. Maura smiled.

"Well, have a good night tonight" She snuggled tight up against Jane, her arm around Jane's waist. "A very good night" Brenda snickered and snuggled into my neck, before looking up at them.

"Oh we will, won't we sweetie?" I looked down at her and nodded.

"Oh yes" Jane nodded and looked back at Maura, getting a very un-Maura like wicked grin in return, before they both looked back at us as Jane spoke.

"Then we'll leave you to it"

We turned and followed Natalie and Anastasia down the hall, their door was already shut, I'd no doubt they were already all over each other.

I paused in the doorway and then slowly pushed Brenda away, ushering her in first, before following her in and shutting the door behind me. I'd barely had a chance to turn when I was slammed back against the door, Brenda's hot mouth against mine, her tongue already demanding entrance.

I don't know how long we were there, our hands roaming all over each other, bodies crushed together, our tongues wrestling back and forth, before we finally came up for air, gasping.

"God Brenda, I want you" She smirked.

"I need you sweetie, so bad" She went to kiss me but I held her back, Brenda getting a surprised look on her face, a look which changed to something else as I spoke.

"It's not your mouth I want to kiss, well not right now" I saw her lick her lips, her eyes dark and needy as my words hit. I stepped away from her, taking one hand in mine and leading her towards the bed. I turned her so she was backed against the bed, the mattress against her calves, as I stepped close and kissed her, it was hot and desperate and full of passion and I had a hard time stopping. Only the realisation that I had other things I urgently needed to do to her convinced me to stop. As I pulled away I could see her face, needy and almost wild, god yes, she was ready, looking as desperate as I felt.

With a gentle push I tumbled Brenda back on the bed, seeing her bounce on the sinfully soft mattress as a giggle escaped her. I smirked as I dropped to the floor on my knees, leaning over the bed and pushing her legs apart as she levered herself up on her elbows to watch me. I could see the dark flash of her panties between her thighs, before pushing her thighs as far apart as her tight skirt would allow, which wasn't quite enough.

"Scoot up a bit honey" Brenda levered herself back a bit, before I reached up and pushed her skirt up a bit, then pulled her back towards me, getting a slight squeal of surprise as I exposed the top of her thighs and her panties to my eager attention.

"That's much better" Levering herself up again Brenda looked back at me.

"Not yet it isn't" I looked back at her in mock annoyance.

"Maybe I should let you go first then?" I got a happy smile; she obviously didn't take my threat seriously.

"Sure, scoot up here sweetie and let me take care of you" I couldn't say the offer wasn't tempting but I'd wanted to bury my head between those long legs since I'd first seen her dressed for tonight.

I'd intellectually known that The Intersection's 'Club Night' meant wild clothes and wild nights, I'd seen enough of the photo's from the girl's previous nights there to know that we'd be wearing something tight and sexy and scandalous, but I hadn't been prepared either for how Brenda looked or the effect seeing her like that had on me. I'd been mesmerised, that was the only word for it. I'd seen in her in everything from her uniform blues and work suits to her birthday suit and none of them had set me off like this. The stares she'd drawn out on the floor had made me burn with both jealousy and desire. That no matter who had asked and plenty had, she'd brushed them off and turned to me had made me feel very special and very, very lucky.

I'd had a beautiful woman in my arms and I'd wanted her so badly all night, no way was I going to pass up that opportunity now, even for something as amazing as Brenda Leigh's mouth on my body doing her best to get me off, something which was a treat anytime, but as turned on as we were would be amazing now.

"Pull your skirt up a bit more honey, let me get to you" With a bit of effort we worked it up to her hips, it really was tight, before I smiled. "That's better, now lift your butt"

As she did with a swift action I drew her panties down off her hips and to the bottom of her legs, before lifting first one leg then the other and sliding them off. I took a moment to bring them to my nose and inhale deeply; they smelled of aroused Brenda, one of my favorite scents. Glancing up I could see Brenda was watching me raptly; her eyes wide, for some reason my enjoyment of her scent both aroused and embarrassed her in equal measure, even after several months together.

I don't know what her idiot husbands had done to make her doubt herself, but the sight, taste and smell of an aroused Brenda turned me on like nothing else, igniting a fire deep within me without fail. How they had ever failed her and let her go I couldn't understand. Now wasn't the time for that though, I had a turned-on Brenda right in front of me and I was going to make a meal of her.

Leaning forward I pushed one leg far to the side, then lifted the other over my shoulder, her leg resting on my back as I leaned in, I could smell the arousal coming from her, enough to make my mouth salivate, I could see the moisture, easily visible in her closely trimmed curls; to know I'd done this to her made me smile.

"I've been looking forward to this all night Brenda Leigh, I've been dying to get you alone and ready" I saw the smile on her face widen at my words, her voice was low and needy.

"I'm not going anywhere Sharon, I'm all yours, do anything you want" With that I leant in and opened my mouth, letting my tongue work up her lips, gathering her arousal and carrying it back to my mouth greedily, I loved her taste and wanted all I could get. The low, hungry moan I drew from Brenda was just an added benefit.

Pausing for just a moment, I savored her unique combination of tastes before smiling, probably a little cruelly, I wanted her, all of her and I was going to take it. I pushed forward and drew my tongue right up through her folds, lapping her deep, gathering up her taste and carrying it to my mouth, seeing her back arch off the bed at my touch as a hiss of delicious need escaped her lips.

The ability to have her writhe on my tongue was something I loved, Brenda had told me no one had ever made love to her orally like I did, something my ego had soaked up, while I'd wondered how the hell that fool Fritz Howard had messed things up so badly, to have someone so responsive under your mouth was a treasure, it just confirmed my opinion that he was an idiot for leaving and losing her. I'd vowed to make sure she never ever got tired of my tongue on her, she was simply too delicious, in every sense of the word, to ever let go.

I was running my tongue up and down, sliding in and out, lapping her juices up and driving her mad under me, her moans and cries starting to fill the room as I stabbed my tongue deeply into her pussy, feeling moisture coating my cheeks as I forced my tongue in as deep as I could, seeing her head slam back against the bed as the sensations hit her, I could feel her hot, wet walls clenching on my wriggling tongue, desperate to not let me go, to keep me deep inside, teasing and tantalizing and tormenting her.

Finally, having temporarily drunk my fill of her, I pulled back, looking past the mounds of her breasts, with her lovely long nipples pushing hard against the tight latex, to see Brenda still writhing, one hand buried in her hair, the other with two fingers in her mouth as she desperately sucked on them, making me grin. I'd discovered Brenda had a massive oral fixation, her desire for chocolate was the public manifestation, but she loved sucking, tonguing and licking everything she could, with me being her favourite target, not that I'd ever complain.

Realising it was time to push her over the edge, I leaned down again and dragged my tongue slowly up through her gaping, swollen lips once again, before sucking one of her labia's lips into my mouth and lashing it with my tongue, feeling her convulse under me, the moan I drew from her was loud and anguished, she needed this so much.

Letting her lips slide from my mouth I moved a little higher, closing on the one area I'd deliberately avoided so far. Approaching it carefully, I circled my tongue round and round, teasing her but never quite touching her clit, despite the frantic begging I was dragging from her, her hips bucking as she writhed, trying to get my tongue where she so desperately craved.

Finally, having drawn her as taunt as a bowstring, I dragged the tip of my tongue slowly, roughly across her clit as she nearly levitated off the bed, filling the room with entreaties, pleas and curses. I smiled as I idly wondered if the others could hear her; probably, but wasn't that part of this wicked, nasty little game we were all playing? To let them know we could play just as hard as they could, that I could make her scream my name with love and need and release?

Realising Brenda was close, and wanting to give her the release she so desperately needed, I pushed forward, sucking her clit into my mouth and catching it gently between my teeth as I lashed it with the tip of my tongue, it was like I'd applied an electric shock to her, Brenda's thighs clamped onto my head, her heel pushing into my back as one hand buried itself in my hair, desperately holding me to her as the approaching thunder of her climax rumbled through her, carrying her higher and higher before, with a shuddering screech, she crested the wave, my name on her lips, before collapsing, trembling and twitching as the aftermath rumbled through her, the occasional aftershocks making her shake and shudder.

I let her slip from my mouth then gently pulled my head from between her now limp thighs, carefully lifting the leg over my shoulder off I lowered it to the floor, before moving round to lie beside her, scooping her up into my arms, feeling the little shivers still running through her. After all the night's build up, the release had left her wrecked, at least for the moment. After a minute or so lying there she came back to me.

"Oh god, that was amazing Sharon, so good..." We lay there quietly for a while, just cuddling, as our breathing slowly returned to normal, luxuriating in the closeness, the tenderness as I enjoyed holding her to me. We kissed for a while, slow and gentle, before Brenda lifted herself up on an elbow and pushed me flat on my back, staring down at me.

"Your choice sweetie, you want it soft or hard?" I swallowed, hearing the teasing and the smile in her words, either would be lovely, I really didn't care, I knew whatever she did would be fine by me.

"Dealer's choice sweetie, whatever you want to do" She went to speak when we heard a shuddering scream, dying off to a sobbing moan. I recognised Natalie's voice, Anastasia driving her over the same precipice Brenda had plummeted over so recently, Brenda's smile suddenly turned feral, her eyes darkening noticeably.

"I was kinda hoping you'd say that sweetie" She rolled off the bed and reached down, slowly peeling the latex dress up, over her breasts and her head and off her body, dropping it on the chair where it was soon joined by her bra as she stood there naked in her heels, unconsciously beautiful. She ran her hands through her hair, before shaking it out and letting the curls bounce down over her shoulders, looking soft and lovely.

Brenda however was too preoccupied to notice my appraisal as she walked over to the large bag she'd brought with her tonight. Dropping to one knee she rummaged through it before her hand emerged clutching one of our strap-on toys, the double ended one.

Unconsciously I licked my lips as she stood and faced me, the toy in one hand, watching as she stepped into one loop and pulled it up her leg, before grabbing the toy in one hand and gently sliding the other, short, thick end inside her, drawing a gentle, shuddering hiss as it slid in, the harness pushing up against her still tender clit. Finally, with it settled inside she went to finish strapping it on, when she looked up to see me watching.

"On your knee's Sharon, facing away" I rolled over onto my knees and forearms, looking back over my shoulder as she finished getting it settled comfortably and snugly around her hips, tightening the straps on both sides to ensure it wouldn't move no matter how vigorous her movements, how frenzied our efforts.

"Do you want me out of this dress Brenda?"

"Oh no sweetie, I've been watching you in that outfit all night, desperate to have you" I swallowed at her words, her tone, she was going to fuck me senseless, I could see it in her eyes, her warm brown eyes were almost black with arousal and her lips had curled into a hungry, almost predatory smile as she slowly walked towards me, a tigress stalking her prey. My eyes were drawn to the head of her 'cock', seeing it bob and bounce with each step as I licked my dry lips. Moving onto the bed behind me, Brenda leaned forward, resting her hands on my butt.

"I've been staring at your legs all night Sharon, imagining you just like this, on your knees, spread open for me, just waiting to get filled, waiting for me to be the one to get you off" I jerked as one hand slapped down on my ass cheek, more startling than stinging, the noise loud in the room. "Don't think I didn't see all those women staring at you, desperate to have you while you teased and flirted with them"

"But I wasn't...ah!" Her hand came down on my ass again, a little harder this time, stinging a little.

"Don't lie to me Sharon, I saw you, the only reason I didn't drag you out of there was the fact that they got to look, but only I get to touch" Before I could say anything I felt her gentle kiss on my abused cheek, her soft kiss and warm tongue soothing my skin. I felt her hands on the dress, pushing it up, bunching it at my hips and exposing my ass to her. I could feel the fall of her eyes on my skin, could imagine the smile on her face as I felt a finger trace across my panties, along my crease, her voice was sultry, lust soaked.

"My Sharon, you're all wet, these are positively drenched. I think you need taking care of" I arched my back with pleasure at another teasing touch, my voice breathy and eager.

"As long as it's you"

"Oh it's me all right, no one else gets to touch you, you're all mine" Brenda had a possessive streak at times, tonight was one of those times.

"All yours Brenda, I'm all yours"

"I know sweetie, I know. Now let's get these off you, they're soaked and quite frankly, they're in the way" Quickly she divested me of my now sodden panties, before getting me settled on my spread knees, my dress up around my hips, leaving me feeling open and exposed. Brenda's voice came to me, low, playful, rippling with heat and desire.

"I've been imaging you like this all night sweetie, spread wide, bent over just ready and waiting for me" I trembled, hearing the desire dripping in her voice, oh she was going to take care of me tonight, I could tell. "Why do you think I brought this with me? I've been looking forward to fucking you like this all night" Her words hit me hard, I clenched my hands into fists as my eyes closed, the waiting, the anticipation after all the build up was killing me.

"Now let's get you lined up properly" Brenda's hands lifted my hips a little as I brought my knees a fraction closer together, feeling the mattress shift as she moved into position behind me. "Perfect Sharon, just perfect" I could hear the lust-soaked anticipation in her voice. "Now hold still sweetie" I took my lower lip between my teeth as I waited, my body humming in eager anticipation, before I arched as I felt the first touch of the toy's tip as it came into contact with my superheated core.

The head of the dildo felt huge as she slowly rubbed it up and down, teasing my lips with its fullness as she coated the head in my arousal. It felt massive, while I knew I could take it as I had many times before, I was so turned on and sensitive it felt like it was big enough to split me open. Up and down it moved, Brenda rubbing it in between my labia lips, pulling away as I tried to slide back, desperate to get it inside me, to stop the tantalising, teasing torture, making a keening sound of frustration as she denied me what I so badly needed.

"Uh ah sweetie, wait your turn" I could hear the amusement in her voice as I pleaded; only Brenda could make me like this, desperate and whiney and needy and craving her touch.

"Please Brenda, oh god please, give it to me, please" I felt Brenda's hair on my neck as she bent over, her breath warm in my ear, her voice low and amused.

"I'll give it to you Sharon but are you really sure you want this? I might be a little bit…rough" I frantically nodded; tonight's events had teased me to the point I was almost desperate, I needed her inside me now.

"God yes, please…" Her voice hadn't lost the amused tone.

"Please what Sharon?"

"Oh god honey please, just fuck me, I need you inside me" I felt her lay a kiss to my neck as I turned my head to her, but she was already pulling away.

"Ok sweetie, never let it be said I don't give you what you want" I was about to say something, when I felt the tip of her cock sliding up into my centre, the head nestling forward into me, just a fraction, but enough to make me hiss in anticipation as my head dropped and my back arched. "Ready?"

I nodded frantically, so desperately longing that I could barely speak, everything had settled down to that feeling, that pressure at the entrance to my pussy, how good it was going to feel, I needed it as much as I'd needed anything. Without warning, Brenda thrust hard, the cock sinking deep inside me, my eyes slammed shut and my head was thrown back as a gurgling scream was forced from me, driven from my throat by the entry of the toy.

I could feel it slam home, the delicious pain as I was forced apart, feeling filled, impaled upon Brenda's fake phallus. Brenda paused, I could feel her hips wriggle just a bit, making the toy move deep inside me, drawing a moan from me as she did. Brenda must have heard it as she paused, giving me time to get adjusted to the girth deep within me.

"Oh god sweetie, I love seeing you spreading around me, to see it slide inside you, to make you feel so good" I nodded through gritted teeth, feeling the movement at my centre sending sparks through me, my voice a wanting moan.

"Its good, god it's good honey"

"Then let me make you feel even better Sharon" Brenda's voice was positively dripping with lust, her southern accent even more pronounced. Her next words were softer as she leaned forward to breathe into my ear. "Let me make love to you, let me give you what you want" The soft southern lilt in my ear was maddeningly close; I could feel her breasts pressing into my shoulder blades as she leaned forward. "Let me fuck you" I couldn't help it, that voice and the images they were conjuring were enough to drive me even further into that place where all I wanted was the sensations, the feeling of being taken, by her. I moaned, low and needy.

Brenda's response was to gently pull her hips back, drawing the toy out of me slowly, carefully, making me feel every ridge and contour of it as it slid out. Finally she paused, the tip only barely there, I could feel just the head inside me. I jerked as she thrust again, hard, the base of the dildo slamming into my tender lips, the harness grinding into me as I gasped in shocked pleasure and pain.

Feelling it slowly pulling out again, I caught my lower lip between my teeth again as I tried not to moan at the sensations coursing through me. '_So good…oh so good_''

The head of the dildo stopped, just as it reached the entrance to my pussy, I could feel my lips flaring around the head, as I felt Brenda's hands shift slightly, finding better purchase on my sweat-slicked skin, getting a firm hold.

"Who do you belong to Sharon, who?" I groaned at her teasing tone.

"You, only you, always you" Her laugh was quick.

"Right answer, lucky for you" Before I could say anything, she thrust forward, I could feel the head pushing me apart, thrusting inside me, sending bolts and spasms of heat rushing through my body. I dimly heard a shuddering moan echo through the room, mine, as she pushed even deeper than before, then drew out again, our hips falling into an ever faster rhythm as she pounded the toy into me over and over again.

Life had shrunk down to this point, the heaving of my breathing as I was jerked back onto Brenda's cock, her panting from behind me, the moans forced from me as she bottomed out, the slap of skin on skin as I felt the beginnings of a massive climax coming, I'd not been fucked like this in a while, primal and desperate and raw and hard, I was going to be a mass of bruises tomorrow, especially where Brenda's fingers were clenched around my hips, but I didn't care, not for something like this, something so good.

As my head jerked to the rhythm of her thrusts I could hear the groans forced out of my throat, combined with Brenda's grunts and groans as she drove forward, over and over, I knew the effort she was putting in, it was hard work being the one driving, but all I could think of was how good she was, pushing me towards the cliff.

"God Sharon…are you close…?" I nodded, unable to speak. "Then touch yourself…play with it…make yourself come" I let my head fall to the mattress, not sure I could hold myself on one arm, not with the way she was hammering into me. With a hand free I reached back, reaching for the one spot that would combine with what she was doing to send me headfirst over that cliff. At the first touch of my fingertips a shudder ran through me, I was so close.

Seeing it, somehow Brenda sped up, the room resounding to the quick, rhythmic, moist slap of sweaty skin on skin as I circled my fingers over my clit, quicker and quicker, feeling the edge approach, filling the room with my cries, begging Brenda to make me come, the stimulation on my clit combined with the ferocious pounding Brenda was giving me sending bolts of lightning through me, before I screamed as the climax hit, screamed my throat raw.

As it engulfed me, washed through me and carried me away I dimly heard Brenda's answering cry, half scream, half moan as she dragged me desperately back onto her, impaling me as I felt her shudder and buck behind me, she must have been close and hearing me go had sent her over the edge.

Sometime later I came back to myself from wherever I'd been, to find myself sprawled on the bed, Brenda lying on top of me, still inside me. Over the sound of my desperate panting I could hear her harsh gasping, feeling the movement of her body on me as she desperately dragged air in and out of her lungs. Finally we recovered enough to speak.

"Sorry sweetie" Her voice was low and pained, pushed out between pants. "I'm heavy, let me move" I wanted to shake my head, I was too wrecked though. With effort I moved my head and groaned out the words.

"Don't. Want you…in me" I felt her lips on my shoulder through the latex of the dress, kissing me gently. I don't know how long we lay there, feeling each other shudder as we rode the aftershocks, before Brenda oh so slowly slid down my body, the dildo equally slowly pulling out, as I felt every ridge and bump as they passed my abused lips, making me tremble and groan softly, partly in pleasure, partly pain. Finally, with a last shudder as the bulbous head pulled out, it was gone and I felt myself collapsing, too shattered to do much more than lie here.

I realised I'd be sore for days after this, that tiny, delicious soreness, the sort that came when you sat too quickly and felt it, deep within you. Each time I'd remember this, what we'd done and I'd have to stop myself smiling in front of others, keep that pleasurable memory deep within, just for me to enjoy. I heard Brenda let the dildo fall to the floor before she joined me back on the bed, spooning me into her. Summoning all my remaining energy, I rolled over within her arms, seeing the tired but happy smile on her face.

"Hi sweetie" I smiled, even her accent was more pronounced, something that happened when she was happy, or tired or, like now, both.

"God Brenda, that was lovely" She chuckled, low and soft. She opened her mouth to say something, when we heard Maura's voice suddenly loud, begging Jane to fuck her, growing in volume, before her voice rose to a crescendo as she came with Jane's name on her lips. Brenda and I exchanged a look, before we dissolved into giggles. Finally she subsided enough to speak.

"You think they heard us?"

"Honey, I'm sure of it" I bit my lip, seeing her colour slightly. "Y'know, I wasn't sure about this, I was kinda wondering if I was ready for this, tonight" Brenda pulled her head back to regard me.

"Whatever do'ya mean sweetie?" I ducked my head down, a little embarrassed.

"Us here, dressing like them, then coming back here, knowing they could hear us, that we could hear them" She looked at me for a second, then nodded.

"I know what you mean; I thought I'd look like a fool, dressed like that, well at first" I smiled reassuringly.

"I thought you looked amazing" She nodded slowly.

"When you looked at me, when you first saw me, I knew it was ok, that if they thought I looked ok, and then you looked at me and I could see you thought I looked good, then it'd be ok" I smiled at her, remembering the effect that first seeing her dressed like that had on me.

"Oh Brenda, you looked better than ok, you looked fantastic" She smiled happily.

"So did you. The moment I saw you I just wanted you then and there. Those stockings, plus the heels and the short skirt made you look all leg, tall and slim and sexy and all" I nodded.

"I was a bit reluctant too, but Jane made a deal with me" She frowned.

"What sort of deal?" I smiled.

"Jane said if you didn't take one look at me and look like you wanted to jump me then and there, I didn't have to wear it" She laughed, relaxed and happy.

"Oh that's Jane all right, she doesn't bet against sure things' I smiled at her words. "I took one look at you standing there Sharon and all I could think of was how much I had to have you"

"Same here honey, I had to have you, you look great anytime, but in that dress… I can't resist you at the best of times, dressed in that…" I smiled to myself; knowing I had to see her dressed in that again. She smiled and leaned in close.

"That makes two of us sweetie, you looked wonderful" She leaned in and we kissed again, soft and slow, just feeling each other. As we did I heard another shuddering moan, I couldn't be sure if it was Jane or Ana. We broke the kiss as I chuckled and Brenda sniggered, before she buried her head in my neck. I pulled her close and we snuggled for a bit, before she pulled back to look at me.

"Y'know sweetie, I wasn't sure if we could do this either, the whole Intersection thing, the clothes and all, 'specially the coming back to their place, knowing we'd be hearing them and they'd be hearing us" I nodded, I knew back when I'd first agreed to it, back when Brenda and I were first starting out, that this might be a big step, a step too far out of her comfort zone. "But now, now we're here, I'm glad we did" I smiled widely, seeing her smile break out too.

"So you don't mind that we're in a competition to see who can make their partner scream loudest?" She caught her lower lip between her teeth as she shyly shook her head. I smiled even wider. "We seem to have got off to a good start" She nodded.

"We did. Normally I'd be feeling pretty wasted, but knowing they're still going, well…" I raised an eyebrow.

"It is rather…inspirational" She smiled a little wickedly.

"I'm feeling pretty inspired actually" I laughed at her tone and pulled her in to me, wrapping her in my arms as I rolled onto my back, pulling her up to lie on top of me.

"So what would you like to do now?" At my words she slowly licked her lips, her eyes darkening.

"Why sugah…" Brenda's southern lilt had turned decidedly wicked and full of teasing. "How about I leave that all up to you?" I smiled; I had Brenda and her permission to do anything I wanted, life was good. I was about to kiss her when a thought struck me.

"Just what else did you pack in that bag, exactly?" She blushed.

"I thought a few toys might help us, y'know, reach new heights" I looked at her through narrowed eyes as she slightly wriggled her hips, sliding down slightly and working her way between my thighs.

Brenda had turned out to be everything I could have ever asked for in a lover and a partner. Warm and loving, eager, exceptional even, I was blessed to have her and to be hers.

Finally I spoke, hearing my voice's throaty timbre even as my body started to warm up under hers.

"Oh honey, I don't think we're getting much sleep tonight" A devilish smirk appeared on her face as she writhed between my legs, forcing them a little wider as I felt warmth spread through me, centred at my core. Finally she spoke, her voice low and full of need.

"Sleep is for the weak"


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N **Unfortunately I am required to travel for the next two weeks to places with intermittent net access, so I will update when I return. On the other hand it gives me time to write more chapters.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**14 The Morning After**

Natalie's viewpoint

I ached, all over. I don't think there was any part of me that didn't hurt; from my feet, after a long night of dancing in heels, to my head, paying for hours of dance beats and a little too much wine.

Mind you, there was another reason I was so sore, she was sound asleep next to me, no doubt recovering from a job well done; very well done in fact. At some point last night, or more correctly, late this morning, Ana had produced our set of fur-lined leather shackles and taking advantage of the fact I was helpless in a post-orgasmic stupor, had looped them through the bed head then cuffed me, leaving me powerless to resist her, not that she needed cuffs for that.

She'd then proceeded to tease and torment me for almost two hours of the most deliriously delicious sweet torture; that was the reason for my sore throat, I'd begged and pleaded and screamed and sobbed for release as she kept me on the precipice with her fingers and tongue for what felt like an eternity, as she'd grinned wickedly at me, before finally letting me cum in a earth-shattering climax which had left me shaken, satiated and completely, utterly wrecked, the last thing I remembered as I'd fallen unconscious was Ana's proud satisfied smile.

I smiled long and slow and a little smugly, we'd surely won last night's little contest; at least I thought so and that was all that counted.

Dragged from this ridiculously comfortable bed with it's even more amazingly soft sheets by my body's needs I pulled on a tee and a pair of indulgently soft silk boxers with hearts all over them, a gift from Ana, before slipping out of the bedroom, I'd rather not use the en-suite if I could help it, I didn't want to wake Ana, she obviously desperately needed her sleep, I on the other hand desperately needed to pee and then just as desperately needed a coffee.

After using the toilet next to the laundry, I walked into the kitchen to find Maura standing at her coffee machine, wrapped in a silk dressing gown and looking a whole lot less the impeccable runway-ready clothes horse than she normally did, hair somewhat disheveled, not helped by the hickey easily visible on her neck.

"Hi Maura" She looked up and smiled, a little tiredly, well a lot to be honest.

"Good morning Natalie, I am actually surprised to see you this morning" I frowned.

"Oh? Why, how come?" She smiled, a little Mona Lisa-ish.

"Given you apparently sold yourself into slavery to Anastasia last night" I blinked at her, still trying to get the motor neurons going, it was a losing battle without caffein.

"I did what?"

"You told Anastasia that you would do anything she asked, absolutely anything at all, no matter how nasty or evil or depraved or wrong, as long as she let you orgasm" Maura grinned, a little evilly herself. "Given the scream that followed shortly thereafter it sounded as if you had yourself a deal" I groaned and buried my head on my arms on the bench top. Finally I spoke without looking up.

"Fine, whatever, horrible bitch" I could hear the humor in Maura's voice.

"Whom, Anastasia?" I looked up long enough to poke my tongue out at her.

"Yeah, her too, where's my coffee. I need coffee to handle you this early" Maura smiled as she turned to the coffee pot.

"Funny, Jane says much the same thing; I might also remind you it is almost eleven o'clock" I groaned, whatever...

"Still too damned early" I heard a cup and saucer being slid across the granite bench top and looked up, smiling at the aroma of a fresh coffee. "I take it all back, I love you, just keep me in coffee and I'm yours forever."

"That's not what you said last night as I recall" I looked up to see Sharon leaning in the doorway, wrapped in an indulgently fluffy white dressing gown and bare feet smiling broadly at me, '_Oh no_' I groaned, it was far too early for both of them at once. I picked up the cup and savored the blissful taste, before turning to fully face Sharon.

"I've had coffee, so I can handle you now" She chuckled softly.

"You sure you're name's not Brenda, awful lot of similarities there..." I shook my head.

"Go to hell Sharon" I looked up at her, seeing her widening smile. "Though I think Brenda took you someplace else last night, based on what I heard early on, you seemed very grateful wherever it was she took you" She blushed slightly as Maura snickered.

"I do recall something along those lines last night Sharon, you were very polite" I smirked at the memory.

"Yes all those 'pleases' last night, I don't think I've ever heard you so...polite" She coloured slightly but pressed on regardless.

"Maura, could I trouble you to use those magic fingers of yours to make me a coffee" I didn't miss Maura's sudden blush. It looked like Sharon had heard something that I'd missed. She turned away and busied herself at the benchtop.

"Magic fingers eh?" Maura acted like she hadn't heard me, leaving me to cock an eyebrow in question at Sharon as she took the stool next to me. Sharon looked very tired and very, very well ridden, but smiled in response.

"According to Jane, who should know, Maura apparently has magic fingers, she was certainly using them to cast a spell over Jane" She chuckled. "Jane really has quite the foul mouth when she gets going" I smiled, remembering some of the things Maura had cried out last night and at other nights.

"Not just Jane actually, our barista here can get down and dirty with the best of them when the…mood takes her" Sharon nodded, casting a glance over at Maura from the corner of her eye.

"So I was led to believe last night, I had a hard time believing my ears, that our prim and proper Medical Examiner had it in her" I pulled out my best shit-eating grin for Maura's benefit.

"Not so much what, but who, was actually in…" Maura slid the cup over, cutting me off.

"Your coffee Sharon" Sharon and I exchanged a quick glance before she smiled, slow and wide and comfortable and contented. That pretty much summed us all up, contented.

"Thank you Maura" We sat there, talking desultorily as the coffee slowly rejuvenated us, before there was the sound of movement echoing down the hall, Jane appearing in the doorway, shuffling like a zombie towards the bench top, hand out towards the coffee machine, her voice slow and growly.

"Coffee" We looked round at each other and laughed, before Maura took pity on her and started another cup. We tried to engage Jane in conversation but it was obvious that her brain was still recovering from whatever Maura had done to her last night, she was definitely '_Non__compos mentis_', at least until she got a coffee into her. I could see a few partly visible bite and scratch marks, mind you we were all carrying those, even Sharon, I could see the edge of a hickey on her left breast, peeking round the edge of her dressing gown. For all she's supposed to be the LAPDs 'ice queen', she was a remarkably passionate woman, they both were as my ears could attest. Brenda and Sharon had easily kept pace with us through the night; I had a hard time repressing a smirk as I remembered Brenda begging Sharon to ride her before screaming Sharon's name as she'd come.

With the first cup in her Jane started to recover, looking more awake and alert and I was about to say something when I heard Ana's voice from the door, turning to take her in, complete with a few bite marks I took great pride in leaving. Mind you, the pain in my right ass cheek was from where she'd sunk her teeth in last night, every time I'd sit down for the next few days I'd be a little sore but definitely not sorry from that little memento. Ana stood in the doorway, peering owlishly around the room before settling on me, unconsciously drawing a smile, before her hand came up, making a drinking motion.

"Need coffee" I exchanged glances with Maura and Sharon, before we fell into howls of laughter.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N **Hi guys, sorry for the unanticipated delay but I'm back, and as a bonus I did get to write a few additional chapters while stuck down there. After three weeks in Antarctica I agree with at least part of Dante's story, the lowest circle of hell is a frozen wasteland.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**15 The Picnic**

Jane's viewpoint

There are days when I hate the world, usually when we're called to a scene to be confronted with the results of the worst of humanity's dark side. Even after years of rolling out to see the horrible things people do to one another, I still find myself being surprised at the depths of human depravity.

I used to have too many of those bad days, it comes with the territory as a homicide cop. Good days, days that I really saw the best in the world were pretty few and far between, mostly revolving around family.

Then Maura arrived and things changed, just having her there and being friends changed the ratio, the good started to catch up to the bad. As we became closer, the bad days were outweighed by the good, days where we'd just hang out, or go running, or do yoga, watch a game, have dinner and chat, hell even shopping wasn't too bad, not that I'd ever tell her that, I have a rep to maintain after all.

Once we became lovers and I got to wake up next to her every day, to kiss and touch her whenever I wanted, to love and be loved, the scales started tilting decisively towards the good. Not that the bad wasn't still there, but it was a part of the job, not the whole world.

The move out to LA was what did it though, really allowed me to understand that I could actually separate the bad from the good. Compartmentalise the bad, understand that while what I saw was horrible, it was the job and I could turn that off at the end of the day and go home. That Maura and I could be happy and together and just enjoy life.

In a way it was a relief to be here. I was part of a bigger team, a good team. Back in Boston I'd been lead on most of the cases, usually catching the worst of the cases, just Frost, Korsak and me, which often meant everything came down to me as lead detective, the victims were relying on me to get them justice, to catch the killers and stop the deaths.

We'd built a great reputation for solving the difficult and the weird cases, for cracking the 'impossible' ones, enough so that we'd become the brass's 'go-to' team for bad cases, leaving the simple ones to idiots like Crowe. The recognition was nice I suppose but the expectations and the pressure got to me, especially on the worst, most difficult and horrible cases.

Now I was part of a larger team and we worked together, each supporting the other, catching the killers was a team effort and I had to admit it that I was relieved; carrying the burden when it's literally life or death gets old real quick and I'd done it for way too long. Now I could share that burden and I actually got to be able to mostly turn off that part of me when I wasn't at work and could enjoy life.

Today was a case in point. At Natalie's quiet insistence we'd taken ourselves off the callout roster for 24 hours simply to have some time to ourselves after a few busy, rough weeks. The day had started pretty well, Maura and I had slept in until around seven, then fooled round until about nine, before having a shower together, which had tuned into even more fooling round, followed by a late breakfast and a quiet, comfy Saturday morning on the couch.

We'd then met up with Nat and Ana for a quiet picnic in Griffith Park mid-afternoon. Natalie had suggested a hike up to one of the vantage points, so I'd got to enjoy watching Maura walk ahead of me for about 20 minutes, wearing a pair of linen shorts, a peach polo shirt, wide-brimmed sun hat and hiking boots, it wasn't her usual dress code, but I didn't care, she looked great anyway, like usual.

Nat was wearing cargo pants, a loose white linen blouse, hiking boots and a cap, while Ana had dressed for the unseasonably warm weather, wearing loose shorts, a faded army-issue camouflage tee, hiking boots and a FBI ball cap with her hair pulled into a ponytail through the back. I'd worn jeans, a polo, Red Sox ball cap and runners and was starting to feel the heat when our destination came into sight.

We dropped our backpacks under a large tree and just stood there for a couple of minutes, appreciating the view out over LA. I'd grown up on tales of Los Angeles smog but years of cracking down on polluters had put a stop to the worst of that. A slight breeze carrying away what was left of the haze gave us a great view out over the city, allowing us to soak up the sights. Finally, we'd headed back into the shade under the tree, set out picnic blankets and relaxed.

We'd just lay there for a while, not talking much, just enjoying the peace and quiet, there weren't too many other people around, a few couples and a family; mom, dad and two young kids so it was peaceful and calming.

"I could get used to this" I looked over to where Ana had spoken; she was lying on her belly, propped up on her elbows, toying with a blade of grass.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, peaceful, nice, away from the demands of the job, everyone's expectations, just friends" Maura nodded from where she was sitting next to me, looking out over the city.

"While I enjoy my job and generally like the company of the people I work with, I must admit that not having to meet the expectations of others is pleasant. Here I can just be myself, rather than the person others expect of me" Natalie nodded as well.

"Here the only people I have to worry about are the ones I care about. I don't have to think about what the media wants or what to say or how I'm dressed or what other people think. Here it's just us four and that's all that matters" I looked out over the cityscape below us, thinking about what I was going to say.

"I know what you mean. Back in Boston the expectations got to me a lot. Everyone expected the 'hero cop', Jane Rizzoli" I put air quotes around the hero cop bit. "I wasn't a hero, I'd just done my job, but that's the tag the Boston media hung on me and the BPD went along with it. The Chief told me they needed the good PR and it was good for the force"

I paused for a moment, looking back on some of the things that had happened to me, to us back there. I didn't really talk about this stuff all that much but well, if I couldn't talk about this with these three people, who could I talk to? I focussed out on an airliner coming in to land, watching it till it dropped out of sight as I spoke quietly.

"Everyone expected something I wasn't; that I'd be this larger than life figure, striding through cases, leaping tall buildings in a single bound; that kinda crap. I'm not a hero, I'm just a cop who's good at the job, but that's not what people wanted to see" I could see Ana nodding slowly, rolling onto one side where she could either look at us or out over the city equally easily, while Nat and Maura looked at me, saying nothing, letting me talk.

"I could deal with that, it wasn't my thing but I could handle it. It was when people looked at me and saw Jane Rizzoli, victim...that I couldn't deal with. I wasn't a victim, but this fucking thing with Hoyt seemed to loom over everything. It overshadowed everything I did" I sighed. "Here in LA, I'm just a cop, almost no one here knows who or what I was in Boston, it's a relief to be who I am, not what people expect" Natalie didn't move, her voice soft.

"Was it hard, dealing with it all?" I tilted my head to look at her, seeing her gentle concern.

"Kinda, some people just acknowledged that I'd survived, told me I'd been lucky but that he'd gone to jail and I'd survived. That I could handle, sorta. It was the people who kept telling me how awful it must have been, like I didn't know that" I shook my head slowly, remembering some of the looks. "The hardest part was the pity, I didn't want it and I don't need it" Nat looked across at me, her voice kind.

"Was there much of that?"

"Some, mostly from people outside the force, though there were some cops as well like that" I saw surprise reflected on Natalie's face as well as Ana's before Ana spoke again.

"I'm surprised about the cops; you'd think they'd understand" I shrugged gently, staring off into the distance.

"Some did, especially the older, more experienced ones, the younger ones not so much. Then there were the people who couldn't look at my hands, or who couldn't look away"

"Rude" Nat was frowning darkly. "Rude and callous and insensitive" I shrugged, though I appreciated her concern.

"The hardest part was the people who saw me and saw a victim, who saw I was something less than I was, that he'd taken something from me. It's why I asked for a change of partner. My old partner, Vince Korsak, he'd seen me like that, weak and useless" I shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, Vince is a great guy and I love him, you couldn't ask for a better partner, but I could see it in his eyes" I reached out and plucked a long blade of grass, winding it round my finger. "I didn't want to be the partner he couldn't rely on, he'd seen me a helpless whimpering mess and that wasn't what he needed to see every time he looked at his partner, he needed to see a cop he could rely on to have his back"

"How'd you get through it?" It was Ana speaking softly. I looked across at her.

"I didn't, not at first. I was on leave and kinda fell apart, drank too much, hid from the world in my apartment, away from anyone who might see me. Finally my leave was over and I had to go back to work, back to homicide" I looked down at my hands. "I had to testify at his trial, he made it clear to everyone that he had absolutely no remorse about anything he'd ever done" I shrugged. "He also made it clear that he and I had unfinished business" I sighed just a little, before looking round at Nat and Ana, they'd never had to deal with him, didn't know exactly what sort of monster he'd been. "Clearest example of pure evil I've ever been unfortunate enough to meet" I looked over at Maura who was sitting there with love and support in her eyes, she nodded once as I continued on, she understood. "Maura and I really hit it off after I came back, we'd met before, around the time I was finishing with vice and moving to homicide, but not really had much chance to become close" I could see Maura's little smile appear as she realised how much I was leaving out, especially that little incident with 'Tiffany' in the BPD cafe. I smiled back at her before continuing my story.

"Anyway Maura walked in to the Homicide bullpen one day and saw me obviously having trouble with my hands. Before I knew it she'd taken one of them into hers and was massaging it to help with the pain, all the while telling me about the things I could do to get full movement back" I smiled even wider. "Everyone else just looked at them or looked away, Maura just accepted they were there and dealt with them" I could see her smile widen at the memory. "It's strange really, I'm usually careful about not letting anyone touch them, but Maura just reached out and grabbed them, it never occurred to me to not let her" I looked down at my hands, seeing the scars there, I'd carry them as a nasty reminder till the day I died; '_thanks Hoyt, you twisted fucker_'.

"It's funny; I haven't let too many people touch my hands since I was discharged. The rehab woman, Maura, Ana here, my ma once, that's about it" Natalie leaned over, looking at them curiously.

"Do they hurt still?" I shrugged.

"They don't like the cold, Boston's winters were murder so I wore gloves as much as I could" She nodded.

"What eases them?" I looked up to see the honest curiosity in her eyes.

"Warmth mostly, moving to LA's good for that, snow's something that happens to other places, not here, which I'm not too unhappy about. That's why I'm not looking forward to this Boston trip all that much. Apart from that there's some creams that relax the muscles, Deep Heat, that sort of thing, usually when things get painful Maura massages them and the pain mostly goes away" Nat nodded again slowly.

"If there's anything you need, let us know" She looked across at Maura. "We'll keep some on hand at our place just in case" I saw a meaningful glance pass between her and Maura, they'd just come to some sort of agreement, exactly what I didn't know though I could guess. Natalie looked back at me and smiled a little anxiously.

"Talking about this, it's not too much is it? If it is I'm sorry" I shrugged.

"Not really, I mean you're our friends, I'm pretty sure I can talk to you about anything. Besides, this is kinda a big part of who I am, it might help a bit if you understand"

"You don't mind?" It was Ana. "I mean we do have some questions but only if you don't mind" I smiled at the concern and care they were showing, but I trusted them.

"Go ahead" Natalie nodded gratefully and rolled up to a sitting position, hugging her knees to her chest.

"I get that Hoyt was a monster, everything I've ever read supports that, but why you specifically? Was it because you'd beaten him or that he'd gone after you and failed, that you were a beautiful woman?" Nat fixed me with her gaze. "I understand that other police were after him as well, for some of the murders he'd done before he washed up in Boston, why you and not them?" Ana nodded in support and spoke.

"From what I understand Maura was a big part of him going back to prison after he escaped and adding a few extra life sentences onto his term, so why didn't he go after her?" I nodded slowly, they were good questions.

"I guess it was me because he captured me but I got rescued before he could kill me" I felt my mouth twist. "He felt we had unfinished business, that's why he came for me when he escaped, or sent his apprentices after me" I looked round at Maura, seeing her worried look at the topic, nodding in acknowledgement of her concern as I spoke. "He only fixed on Maura when he realised she was a way to come after me"

"He saw you as a couple?" I thought about Ana's question for a moment then shook my head slowly.

"I didn't think so, that was back before we got together" I thought about it again for a bit more. "I suppose he could have, lots of people told us after it came out that we were together that they thought we'd been together before but not told anyone.

"I suspect that he either projected something there or perhaps, rather more likely, he had observed our close friendship and interpreted it that way" It was Maura, who had sat there quietly so far. "Neither Jane nor I were aware that our feelings were reciprocated" I looked across at her, seeing the concern in her eyes as she carefully reached out and took my hand in hers, establishing a connection. The others both saw it as well.

"I'm sorry if this is dredging up bad memories" It was Nat. She reached out and took my other hand, letting me know she understood.

I glanced down at her hand, holding mine; quietly marveling at the fact I had friends who cared that much for me. I'd had few really good friends most of my life, it'd been my family mostly and then my partners at work like Frost and Korsak. Now I had friends, really good ones, Nat and Ana, Alex and Liv, Brenda and Sharon too, people who'd be there for me no matter what. For someone who'd been tagged as a loner most of their life, someone who didn't fit in with the other kids, not fitting into the pegs that society and school and my Ma expected of me.

A female cop sure as hell wasn't what was expected, especially for a girl from an Italian family, I was supposed to be all girly, find a nice Italian boy, get married at a big Italian family wedding and settle down and start churning out the grandkids, being a cop wasn't part of that vision, let alone Homicide. My Ma was still coming to terms with that while most of the rest of the extended Rizzoli clan was horrified at how I'd turned out.

I mentally shrugged. I was engaged to a beautiful, loving woman, a gentle genius who somehow saw something in me despite everything, I had friends I could trust with my life, partners who'd have my back and I had the respect of the people I worked with, from where I was sitting life was pretty damned good, so the rest of the family could go to hell if that was their opinion. I looked up at the others, while I'd been woolgathering I could see the concern had built in their eyes, together with the guilt in Nat and Ana's, afraid they'd taken me some place bad. I shrugged.

"It's a part of me, well a part of my past. I can't ignore it, I just have to put it into context" They both nodded as I went on. "Talking about it kinda helps, I really didn't have anyone at the time I could talk to" I shrugged. "The shrink the Department sent me to didn't really understand where I was coming from" I shook my head slowly at the memory. "He kept telling me that I should let the anger out, that I was bottling it up inside" I sighed. "I wasn't angry, I had a lot of emotions inside, but anger wasn't one of the big ones"

"What were they?" It was Nat, her voice very quiet. I shrugged.

"Fear, we'll terror actually. I was spooked by sudden noise or movement for months. There was regret and anxiety and a bundle of other things, loneliness too, I didn't think anyone else would understand so I bottled it all up inside" I looked over at Maura. "It wasn't really until he came after me again that I realised I had someone to talk to"

"Maura" It was Ana, it wasn't a question. I nodded.

"Yeah, when it happened I went to her, she was my friend, she was safe, I knew that she'd be someone who'd help without looking down on me or thinking I was weak"

"Never" Maura smiled at me as she squeezed my hand. "Never, ever weak" I nodded gratefully.

"When he sent his apprentices after me, she was there to help me pick up the pieces afterwards, I didn't need a shrink, I had Maura" I paused for a moment, realising that even then I'd needed her more than anything, wondering if that was what Hoyt had seen somehow. "Anyway, when he went after us both, that was the chance, to end it forever, so I did" I glanced back at Maura, seeing her quiet support there, that was so her, she was everything I'd ever needed, ever wanted.

"After that mess, we grew closer; we were our very own mutual support group I suppose. She was there for me and I was there for her. It made me realise that I really loved Maura more than anything" I frowned. "If she hadn't been there and I'd beaten Hoyt I'd probably have left him to die of cancer in a cell, but coming after her, that was the last straw" I looked up, seeing them watching me with compassion and understanding. "I had to end it there and then, to make sure he never ever came after us again" I'd never told anyone that, that I'd killed him when I didn't have to, but it felt good to unburden myself to them, knowing they'd never judge me. I could see in Maura's eyes that this wasn't a revelation, but she knew me better than anyone and she'd been there.

"I can't blame you" It was Ana. "In the same place I'd have killed him without a second thought" She shrugged. "That's the soldier in me talking, remove the threat once and for all, that's what they teach us" She looked up at me with a strange look in her eyes. "To be honest, I'm not as strong as you, I'd have probably have killed him when he came after you, the first time he escaped. You let him live, despite everything" She shook her head slowly. "That's a lot better than me Jane, I couldn't have done that" I shook my head.

"I couldn't have done it Ana, killed him I mean. I didn't have it in me to pull the trigger, to end him. I thought it made me better than him, to have his life in my hands and spare him" I grimaced. "It just gave him the chance to train more apprentices and then come after me, us, again" I shook my head once. "That wasn't strength, it was stupidity"

"I totally disagree" It was Natalie, her voice firm and sure. "I hate violence, but in your place, I'd be like Ana, if someone threatened Ana's life like he had with Maura and I had a gun, I'd have shot him without a second thought and to hell with the consequences" She smiled a little lopsidedly. "Hell, like Ana, I'd have probably have shot him first time round. The fact that you were better than that is a statement of how strong you are, how strong you are, stronger than we are" I was starting to get uncomfortable, I didn't feel strong, not really, he'd beaten me once, and almost beaten me twice more, that wasn't strength.

"Well, maybe" I looked round, looking to distract everyone. "Anyway, who's hungry?" Maura squeezed my hand, obviously understanding what was affecting me. Ana nodded slowly, obviously she saw the distraction for what it was, but that didn't surprise me, sure she had her own demons from her past to deal with. Natalie's voice was cheerful and open.

"Good idea, I'm hungry too. Besides it's too nice a day to waste talking about something so morbid" Looking at her I saw Nat looking at me, her smile warm like the sun. "He's dead, we're alive and that's the important thing" her smile widened. "Well that and lunch" I nodded at her, realising that she'd picked up on it too. I was really lucky, to have friends like this.

"Lunch is always important" With that Maura and Ana stood and walked over to the picnic baskets, leaving me with Natalie.

"Are you ok Jane" Her voice was low and suffused with care. I nodded, keeping my voice low.

"Yeah, he's dead and I'm alive, here with friends" I smiled. "Life's pretty good" She leaned over and rested her hand on my arm.

"We're here for you Jane, if you ever need us. Between Maura and your friends, you're never alone" I nodded at her words, she was right.

"I know, and I appreciate it Nat" She smiled a little wider at my words, then stood, reaching out her hand to help me up.

"C'mon, let's eat" I let her pull me to my feet and she wandered over to where the others were as I stood there watching for a moment.

'_I'm alive and you're dead you fucker, I might carry your scars for the rest of my life, but I won't have to do it alone_' I heard their good natured teasing and smiled. '_Never alone_'. It felt good.

Nodding to myself I banished Hoyt's memory to the dark recesses of my mind and wandered over to join the others, just happy to be here, filled with love and warmth.


	16. Chapter 16

As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders, and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us. To them we owe a vast debt of gratitude for the pleasure they bring us. No infringement of their rights is intended, but thank you for letting us play with them, just for a little while.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**16 The investigation Stalls**

Jane's viewpoint

A few years back I'd seen a YouTube video for Fedex that Frost had shown me one night while sitting in the cruiser on stakeout, liking their network to a hive of bees, it had shown an animated map of the states with a clock running to show how overnight their big planes had swarmed from all across the country to a couple of big sorting centers, then fanned out again, carrying parcels out to cities across America. When they landed you could see smaller dots representing smaller planes scattering out to regional cities and big towns, where their network of trucks had sprung into action. The video had then zoomed in on Houston, showing a similar pattern as their trucks began delivering parcels around the wide expanse of the city and carried more back to their base for flights to other cities and back into the cycle, day after day.

In a way it had been a little hypnotic and I'd watched it three times on his tablet, ignoring Frost's teasing as I quietly marvelled at the amount of work involved to get a parcel from Boston to San Francisco or Chicago to Miami.

Now, standing in the operations centre of UPS's Los Angeles base looking up at the huge screen showing the location of each of their trucks across the LA and surrounding area, I was reminded of that video and of Frost. I missed him; he'd been a great partner and a damned good friend and I was looking forward to catching up with him and the rest of the people I cared about next week in Boston, one of the bright spots in an otherwise dismal trip. I was dragged back to the present by Mike Tao's question to our guide, UPS's deputy ground operations manager for their LA operations, a mid-fifties slightly heavy-set woman named Maria Ortado.

"So you can track any vehicle in your fleet?" She nodded once.

"Yes, we installed fleet-wide GPS locators after a spate of hijackings about four years ago. It turned out to be a gang of criminals hitting our trucks looking for valuable computer parts. They were selling the parts through a couple of stores they owned, turning a tidy profit" Mike nodded as he took notes on his tablet.

"They never found the locators?" Ortado shook her head.

"We worked with the LAPD, the locator people and the van manufacturers to find the best place to locate them, somewhere effective but also difficult to find, they ended up inside the sliding parcel door panel, which turned out to be a good place for it" I looked away from the big screens and across at her.

"I take it they worked?" Ortado smiled and nodded.

"Like a charm, they hijacked a couple more trucks before they grabbed one fitted with a locator, that led the police straight to them" I nodded, that was one if those success stories you rarely heard about where the cops and the public worked together to get a good result. "Based on that the company made the decision to roll them out across our nation-wide fleet, it really cut down on hijackings and also made it easier to monitor our driver and fleet productivity" Mike nodded, as usual fascinated by a tech solution, Buzz had called him our home grown version of Mythbusters Grant Imahara, our very own Asian techno-geek.

"Do the other companies use similar systems?"

"Yes, we all suffer similar problems so we shared the solution and Fedex, DHL and the rest all ended up adopting the same solution" Mike made a note, then looked up.

"But you've had a number of vans stolen recently and they've all dropped off your tracking grid?"

"Yes" Ortado waved at the bank of screens. "They disappear overnight from our driver's homes, we normally don't know they're missing until our driver discovers his truck's gone when he walks out to start work" She shrugged. "We notify you guys immediately of course, but what's one UPS van in a city full of them?" We both nodded, they were pretty ubiquitous, they could go just about anywhere and no one took any notice, which was kinda the point. Mike frowned.

"How hard is it to break into one of your vans and deactivate the locator?"

"Not all that hard really, it's a van, so it's not as secure as a decent high end luxury car, so if you know what you're doing it's not hard at all" I nodded.

"What about getting to the locator?" She shrugged.

"If you know where it is and have a few minutes and the right tools, anyone who could bypass the truck's alarm and get into the truck could easily get to it" Ortado frowned. "It has to be accessible for servicing, so it couldn't be embedded inside the vehicle's frame" Mike nodded.

"So what you're saying is its best defence was people not knowing it was there" She sighed.

"Yes, something that obviously doesn't apply in this case" As they kept talking I zoned out for a moment, staring at the big electronic display without seeing it, thinking this through.

The vans were being stolen from driver's homes which meant the thieves knew where to go to get the van. While there were a lot of them here in LA they weren't something you'd find parked on every street, so someone knew where to look. That in turn suggested some inside information because I didn't think just anyone had access to that data. Looking up I waited until there was a break in the conversation before speaking.

"Which section here would have access to driver's personal information, especially their home addresses?" Ortado looked blankly at me for a second, surprised by the change of subject, before coming back to us.

"That would be HR, we have driver's names here but not their addresses" I nodded slowly.

"Can we talk to the head of HR please?" An hour later we had a lead. They'd hired a temp, a Japanese woman, Minoru Tanaka, to work for them for two weeks about two months ago, she'd had access to the staff database and a check of data logs had shown she'd accessed the database and saved it to a portable drive early one morning. The timeframe fit, the first attack had occurred the week after she'd grabbed the data, the suspects escaping in a UPS van, spotted by a neighbor.

We'd chased her details through the usual temp agency they used, but that had turned out to be a dead end, the home address she'd provided was a Japanese restaurant down in Little Tokyo and a check with them turned up nothing, they'd never heard of her, we'd showed them Tanaka's UPS ID photo taken when she started, but no one recalled seeing anyone that looked like her. It was a dead end, but not completely useless. We had a lead, a picture and a possible connection to the Yakuza plus the knowledge that they were going to continue to hijack UPS vans given they had the addresses to find them. Plus some pretty good Tepanyaki to go.

We'd headed back in to Parker Center where we exchanged notes with Sanchez and Flynn; they'd chased down the original owner of the house the Lin family now owned. He'd had the panic room installed when the house had been built as he was a gem dealer who worked from home; he kept his stock in the room and worked in there, trying to reduce the chance of a robbery. He'd assured them he kept the room's existence a secret, no one else had seen it until he'd put the house on the market.

It had featured as part of the advertising for the home, so our killers could have known of it, but it seemed like a long coincidence that the home invasion crew knew about both the house and that the current occupant stored his cash there. That in turn had led to interviewing Mrs. Lin, who couldn't really help us out; she was still trying to come to terms with her husband's death right in front of her eyes.

Flynn got the idea that maybe someone at Lin's company might have known, so we traipsed down there to interview some of the staff only to find that the bosses disdain for banks was well known. Interviewing the head of accounts, we asked about how the cash got home, only to find that it was also well known that the boss took an envelope full of cash home every week. Flynn and I just exchanged a glance at that, all the security in the world undermined by his casual attitude.

We headed back in to the office and added the few meagre details we'd gathered to the murder board as Brenda walked out to watch us. People get sucked in by the 'aw shucks Southern Belle' façade but that woman has a mind that's sharp as a razor and can connect the strangest things. She watched us write then stared at the board for as few minutes, her eyes faraway, before she smiled a little and turned to look at me.

"Detective Rizzoli…" She's always formal at work, it's important to her to not be seen to favour anyone no matter how close we were outside work hours. "…I have a job for you, it will require some tact and compassion, do you think you're up for it?" I should have been offended, but Brenda was good at gently teasing us and didn't mean anything bad by it, so I decided to play the game.

"Of course Chief, but I'm from Boston, we get that issued that with the badge, unlike here" She smiled, that wide mouthed, guile-free smile, way too many people get taken in by that smile, but I knew better.

"Why detective, are you casting aspersion on your fellow officers here in LA?" I shrugged, noting some of the other guys had started to listen in.

"I'm just going on the evidence available Chief" I waved my hand vaguely around the room. "I mean Flynn, Sanchez, Provenza, the evidence is kinda conclusive" There was a chorus of objections from around the room, making me grin, seeing Brenda do the same as she glanced around.

"Detective Rizzoli does make a good point gentlemen; after all wasn't it you Lieutenant Flynn, and you too Lieutenant Provenza, who tried to ignore a body dropping right in front of you a few years back because you had skybox tickets?" Ignoring their protests she glanced over at Sanchez. "And wasn't it you Detective Sanchez, who complained about that poor victim the other week who had the misfortune to be pushed off a twenty five story roof and splatter all over the sidewalk, making you complain about having to stand around in the hot sun while he was mopped up? And not just you as I recall…" There was a sudden silence, making Brenda's smile widen. "I thought so" She turned round to take me in.

"I have a job for you detective. I'd like you to go visit that poor girl who was sexually assaulted by the home invasion crew, perhaps she might know this woman" She waved at the murder board where Tanaka's photo was pinned up. "This Tanaka woman seems to have been involved in at least one aspect of this gang's work, maybe she's a common part of another" I stood up.

"On it Chief" She nodded then held up a finger, stopping me.

"Given how traumatizing the attack was, I might ask you to take Agent Romanov with you, perhaps speaking to a pair of women might make it a little easier for her" I nodded, that made sense, plus Ana was always looking for ways to get out of the office, she sometimes complained about being cooped up in a desk job. A few weeks back she'd casually mentioned that one of the reasons she hung around Major Crimes so much, besides the fact that Brenda and I worked there, was that we came up with the best excuses for her to get back out into the field, even if it was only for a short while.

Two hours later and we were back, we'd struck out. It had taken a while, the young woman, Erika Mori, had been defensive at first, not particularly wanting to talk about what had happened to her, completely understandable under the circumstances. We'd surprised her though by not raising it though, instead showing her the picture of Tanaka. She'd stared at it for a good long while before shaking her head, she'd not recognised her at all. That brought us back to the murder room, where we were tallying up what we'd learned. Brenda shook her head sadly.

"It surely would have helped if she'd recognised this woman" She sighed. "Ah well, let's move on"

My phone vibrated on my hip, alerting me to a text, I smiled when I saw it; Maura was on her way up. Looking up from the phone I listened in to the chatter round the room, investigations could go either way, sometimes inspiration came in a flash, someone suddenly seeing the missing piece of the puzzle. Other times it was a slow, painful, head-banging grind. This case was turning into one of those; it almost made me glad I was heading out to Boston this afternoon, almost. I started turning my computer off and clearing up my desk, getting ready to bail, Brenda saw it and raised an eyebrow, making me nod.

"If you'll excuse me Chief, I have a plane to catch" Brenda looked back, a slightly confused look on her face for all of half a second before she remembered.

"Oh yes, your Boston trip, when are you due back Detective?" I shrugged.

"If all goes well, two, maybe three days, depends on how good the DA is I suppose" I frowned. "I'd like to be back before Friday night, we have trivia that night" She nodded, we'd managed to rope her and Sharon in for that one.

"Indeed we do. Do you need a ride to the airport? I'm sure we can arrange for someone to run you out to LAX" I smiled past her at where I could see Maura walking down the corridor towards the murder room.

"Thanks Chief, but my chauffeur is here" She looked over her shoulder and saw Maura coming through the door, smiling at her before looking back at me, turning her smile on me.

"Then you'd best be on your way"

**A/N:** A bridging chapter I know but not every investigation has that 'ah-ha' moment, some of it is sheer disheartening grind.


	17. Chapter 17

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**17 Boston Part 1**

Jane's viewpoint

Boston was cold, damned cold. A storm had swept in last night right behind my flight, dropping the temperature well below freezing and dumping heavy snow across the city overnight. For all my previous bitching, I was grateful for Nat's kindness, going out in this weather I needed the right clothes, plus the heavy weather coat that she'd added to the list at the last moment when we saw what the forecast weather was back here.

I'd spent the night at our old place at Beacon Hill; Ma was still living in the guest house and I was really glad she had the heating in the main house cranked up when I arrived, LA was making me soft; a few months out in California and I couldn't handle a Boston winter? I was reminded of a weird song I'd first heard when I was a kid, the Sunscreen song, something about living in California but leaving before it made you soft, same as living in New York but leave before it made you hard.

We'd sat and talked for a few hours, Ma couldn't hear enough about the proposal and New Year's Eve, about my job and our life out there. She obviously missed us, but when she started to give me grief about being abandoned here in Boston I deflected her by asking about Frankie and Tommy, setting her off on a loud moan about how they weren't looking hard enough for the right girl, ad nauseum, making me smile to myself, but hiding it inside where she couldn't see it.

Maura Skyped in and we caught up for a while, but I was so obviously tired; she'd caught me trying to stifle yawns several times, that she ended up sending me off to bed. I stumbled upstairs into our bedroom and fell asleep almost instantly but kept waking up, as if something was wrong. I got up twice to check the house, each time finding nothing. The third time I woke I'd finally realised what it was, the bed was empty, no reassuring warmth of Maura cuddled up against me, no silken hair on my shoulder, no soft, curvy body to spoon, our first time apart in almost a year and I missed her really badly.

"Not so badass now are you?" My soft, sad voice was loud in the quiet room. I ended up tossing and turning for a few hours before I finally fell asleep, totally exhausted.

The following morning I had breakfast with Ma before leaving for work; she nearly had a seizure when she saw me walk downstairs in a tailored dark blue pinstripe skirt suit and the knee boots. The look on her face was almost giddy with happiness, her daughter all girly without Maura holding a whip over me; I took an almost perverse pleasure in telling her that they weren't mine, they were a loan from a friend. Needless to say I got the expected 'why can't you dress like that all the time' lecture, in return giving her the expected Jane Rizzoli eye roll.

Heading into Boston PD headquarters in a cab, I found myself looking round, Boston was the same; it was me that was different. I was mentally checking off places I'd attended during my career here, a murder in that building, a mugging I'd interrupted as a beat cop in that alley off Brookline Avenue, sitting outside that apartment on stake out with Frost as we argued about Sox pitchers, plenty of memories, some good, some bad.

There were others as well, a restaurant that Maura had taken me to on a 'date' night not long after we first got together, the statue of George Washington in the common, we'd pass him on our runs together, the Hotel Commonwealth where we'd first come out publically at the Mayor's charity ball, lots of fond memories here too.

We finally ploughed our way through the slush to Schroeder Plaza, BPD headquarters. The cold was bitter and made me appreciate more than ever the possum fur-lined gloves Natalie had included with the clothes she'd loaned me. Apparently they'd come from some place in Tasmania and she'd picked them up in Seattle at a speciality store, loaning them to me when she'd checked Boston's weather forecast the night before I left. They were amazingly light and warm and she'd been adamant that I use them; that they'd help keep my hands warm and some of the worst of the pain from my scars at bay. She was right too, they still hurt, just not as much as I'd feared; I had enough issues being back in Boston without having to deal with crippling pain in my hands on top of everything else.

Walking into the building was familiar; my old BPD pass still worked thank god. Inside I made my way up to Homicide, getting the usual greetings, insults and a few strange looks from people I knew. Frost and Riley were already there when I walked into the room; Korsak and Cavanagh were still making their way in.

Frost gave me a bit of a hard time over the clothes but Riley looked me up and down and asked where I was buying my suits these days. I told them they were a loan from a friend and at my invitation we ended up down in the café to grab a coffee and catch up.

Frost and his former fiance the FBI agent were tentatively dating again, taking it very slow but they were hopeful, I was happy for him so I didn't give him too hard a time about it. Riley and Susie were going well, Riley had told Frost and Korsak that they were dating but after all the shit that had happened with Maura and I they'd all agreed that they'd keep it low key, especially from Cavanagh, his not-so-borderline homophobia had been a nasty surprise and a real disappointment when Maura and I had come out. He wasn't the only reason though, I was about to say something when one of the other primary reasons walked in.

"Jesus, it looks like a Rizzoli, but it can't be, this one looks like a woman" I turned in my seat, seeing that dickwad Crowe standing there, a smirk on his face; so slamming him back into his place in the scheme of things just came naturally.

"Crowe, are you still here? I thought they would have pensioned you off before now, on account of the injury and all" He got a wary look on his face.

"What the fuck are you talking about Rizzoli?" I gave him a nasty grin.

"Y'know, the RSI damage to your wrist from all those long nights of jacking off to internet porn, cause that's about as close as you're getting to a real woman" I heard Riley snicker behind me, she hated Crowe almost as much as I did; he was a grade A douchebag. He sneered back at me, making him look uglier than he already was.

"Well look at you, I see Isles is dressing you up all pretty, I suppose you're her bitch now" I saw Frost's head swing our way from where he was collecting our coffees but I made myself laugh.

"Yep, that I am Crowe" I held up my hand so he could see the ring, curling the other fingers down so he was getting a ring-finger bird; Maura had insisted on getting me the same one as she now wore, she'd said it meant exactly the same sentiments to her as it did to me. "Guess that means I'm getting more than you, mind you a nun's probably getting more than you do" I could see Crowe getting pissed; though it served the prick right, he should know better than to take me on. Riley grinned and sank the boot in.

"That's not completely true Jane, there's a new woman in Crowe's life; he was raving about her the other day. She's warm, cuddly and inflatable, which is about all the woman Crowe can handle. Best of all she doesn't complain about his tiny dick" I laughed as Crowe's complexion reddened alarmingly.

"Probably got more personality too" I turned back to look at Crowe, cutting him off before he could say anything. "No Crowe, despite what you might think, being a prick isn't a personality, mind you in you it's a defining trait" A couple of uniforms wandered past, laughing at him and winking at me; Crowe wasn't particularly popular, looking down on the beat cops and sucking up to the brass, whereas I'd never forgotten all those years in the blue suit and respected the people still pounding the beat. Crowe had opened his mouth to say something when he was interrupted.

"Don't you have better things to do than flap your mouth down here Crowe?" It was Cavanagh. "What's holding up the lab on ballistics from that drive-by? Make yourself useful and find out" He turned back to us, looking for his next target. "Frost, where are we on the Gonzales shooting? I want to see your witness statements ASAP" He turned on Riley before Frost could say anything. "I want a report on where you're at with those straight-razor murders on my desk by ten thirty" He turned to me, eyes running me up and down. "Rizzoli, so nice of you to visit, I see you're dressing better, let's hope the jury appreciates your new-found sense of style" I could see Cavanagh wasn't happy, wasn't hard to imagine why, having me back here must be pissing him off.

"Good to see you too ell tee" He nodded once, then looked round, to see everyone scattering. Satisfied he looked back at me. "My office" It wasn't a request. When we were seated he didn't mince words.

"Leave Crowe alone Rizzoli, he's an idiot but I don't need you needling him" I shrugged.

"Tell him to keep his petty bigoted opinions to himself and he'll be fine" Cavanagh looked across the desk at me.

"He's one of my detectives and he works here, so you'll keep your mouth shut around him. You're a guest here so try and behave like one" I could see Cavenagh was back to his usual shitty self. After Maura and I had come out he'd gone out of his way to tell us that he didn't like gays, making my life miserable in lots of petty ways. He'd loudly objected to our secondment, until he'd been told to pull his head in by HR, which he'd done with poor grace. He'd taken news that I was staying in LA at the end of the six months badly, it seemed he still wanted to play games; if so I was more than willing to push back. I'd wondered why he was pissed we weren't coming back given he disliked gays, but Riley and Susie had relayed that Cavanagh was copping grief from the brass as his closure rate was way down since we'd left, especially with that fool Pike as the M.E. I smiled a little nastily and sat back.

"I'll behave like a guest if Crowe behaves like an adult, it's probably beyond him actually but I'll tell you what; you keep Crowe on a leash and his mouth shut and I'll behave. He goes back to his usual behaviour and I'll rip him a new one, along with anyone else who's got issues with me" I raised an eyebrow at him. "Deal?" His frown was black and foreboding.

"I don't have to take shit from you Rizzoli, you'll do what you're told and like it" I smiled again. I wasn't the person I'd been when I left and I didn't work for him anymore.

"And I sure don't have to take any shit from you. What exactly is your problem Lieutenant?" He frowned darkly; I didn't know if it was at my question or my attitude.

"I have a department to run, trying to get a job done while being a detective down, plus Isles' replacement's an incompetent idiot. I was hoping you'd get your head and your life straight and get back to work, but obviously not" I smiled at him and deliberately sat back in the chair.

"Well ell tee, if you'd run your department like a professional organisation, rather than a dorm for homophobic college kids, Maura and I'd probably still be here. Instead I work with a squad full of guys who don't give a fuck about who I'm sleeping with, all they care about is that I do my job" He glared at me, but I didn't care, I didn't work for him anymore and he was reminding me why I'd happily gone with Maura to LA. I deliberately smiled at him, I was baiting him and I knew it. "As for straightening anything out, no thanks, I like things this way" His voice was full of suppressed anger.

"You've got a big mouth Rizzoli" I shrugged, uncaring.

"Yep; and you've got a shitty attitude towards gays, fortunately I only have to put up with it for a few days and then I'm outta here" His mouth was a hard line, his voice low with anger.

"Stay out of my way Rizzoli, testify then get the hell out of Boston" I smiled at him, as nastily as I could, matching my tone.

"Trust me, I'm here for the trial and then I'm back to Los Angeles where I get to work with professionals" I stood. "In the meantime, keep your pathetic attitude and your even more pathetic frat boys out of my way, I'd hate to see either of them getting bent" I turned and walked out, looking for Korsak. He was standing near his desk looking past me towards Cavanagh's office; as I walked over to him he dropped his voice.

"Jesus Janie, what'd you do to Cavanagh, he looks like someone shoved a lit stick up his ass, if looks could kill…" I shrugged.

"He's playing his old games, I don't have to take his shit now and took probably a little too much pleasure letting him know I don't" Vince frowned.

"Don't piss him off too much Jane, he could still cause you problems if he tries" I shook my head.

"Nah, if he gets too shitty I'll drop a line to some journalists at the Globe and WHDH News and let them know the real reason Maura and I left Boston. He can spend his time dealing with that and some nasty questions from the Mayor's office when they work out he's why the Isles Foundation has scaled back its support for some of the Mayor's favorite charity work" I glanced back at where Cavanagh was sitting in his office, watching me. "He'll be too busy dealing with that fall out to worry about me"

Korsak looked at me like I'd sprouted a second head, can't say I blamed him though.

"You, talk to the press?" I shrugged. It wasn't like I'd had the best relationship with them in the past.

"Friend of ours back in LA is the LAPD media manager; she's given me some tips on working with the media" Vince shook his head then looked me over.

"Some fashion tips too by the look of it" I chuckled.

"They're her clothes actually, but you can imagine what Ma thought" He laughed, a real one that started deep in his belly.

"Like all her Christmases had come?" I nodded ruefully.

"Yep, she was VERY disappointed. You want a coffee? I was in the process of getting one when Cavanagh dragged me into his office" He nodded.

"Sure, as long as you're buying. It'll give us a chance to talk about the case" He stood up as I grabbed my cell and wallet out of my bag, Natalie's clothes look good but they're so tightly tailored that they don't have all the pockets I'm used to.

"Yeah, I was wondering about that, what's the basis for the appeal?" He shrugged as we headed for the door

"Defense is claiming that we ignored evidence pointing to it being a street gang slaying" I shook my head in exasperation.

"That's bullshit, no way, besides we dragged in all the local gang bangers as part of the canvas and they alibi'd out" Korsak nodded in agreement.

"I know, I know, but they got a hearing so we're back in from first thing tomorrow" We exchanged a look.

"Who's presiding?" He shrugged.

"Judge Stillwell" I nodded, I'd testified in front of him before, Stillwell had been on the bench practically forever, he normally ran a tight ship though he did have his idiosyncrasies, he cared more about the law than politics which was why he was still here in Boston rather than on the bench of the Supreme Court. Ah well, a couple of days and I'd be out of here.

"Great, not like I had better things to do" He looked interested.

"Yeah, so tell me, what's the LAPD got you doing now?" I shrugged.

"Same old, same old"

The rest of the day was busy, going over the case files, checking the evidence, familiarising myself with the case we'd built on the first run through. I still couldn't see that the appeal would get up, but who was I to argue?

That afternoon I rang Maura, it was early afternoon in LA, she was fine but admitted that she hadn't slept at all well last night, for the same reason I hadn't. We chatted for a while before we finished up, then I rang Natalie with a request.

That night Ma cooked dinner at our old place in Beacon Hill; Frost and his girlfriend, Special Agent Anna Farrell, Korsak, Frankie, Ma, Riley and Susie. My brother Tommy was apparently back to being a dick about Maura being with me so he'd begged off, not that I really missed his glowering presence. Ma had cooked her gnocchi, which was amazing, plus cannelloni for desert, it was almost worth it to fly all this way for her cooking, almost. Afterwards we sat around chatting for a while before I pulled up the laptop and plugged it into the big screen television so that everyone could see as I Skyped Maura.

The call went through, but it wasn't Maura who answered, rather it was Natalie, she looked into the camera and smiled happily.

"Hi Jane, Maura's just in the bathroom, she'll be here in a moment" I could see that it was their apartment in the background and I smiled, looks like my request had worked. Ana's head appeared on the screen next to Natalie's.

"Hey Jane, how's Boston?"

"Damned cold, there was a big snow dump last night after I got in" I looked round. "Let me introduce you" I introduced them both then worked round the room, I noticed Frankie showing a lot more interest in the chat after a look at Nat and Ana and had to smother a laugh at his expense.

By now Maura had returned so Ana and Nat begged off, Ana was cooking and Nat had some work to do, so they said goodbye and Maura's face appeared, her smile at seeing everyone clustered around was huge.

The next ten minutes was spent chatting, catching up with what people in Boston had been doing, Maura's innate sense of good manners meant she had to chat to everyone before we got to talk privately, eventually she'd spoken with everyone so I unplugged from the television and walked into another room to have a private chat, mostly about how much we missed one another. Maura explained that Natalie had arrived at her office and insisted that she stay the night at their place tonight. I smiled at that, if all went well at least she'd get a good night's sleep.

Finally we wrapped up; I missed her and told her so in no uncertain terms; I couldn't wait to get back to her, the sooner the better. We exchanged Skype kisses, holding our fingers to the screen, before we logged off, leaving me ruefully wondering when I'd turned into such a pile of mush. Just as ruefully I knew the answer, the first time Maura turned that smile on me, after that I was ruined for anyone else.

Back out in the main room there were a few questions from everyone about Nat and Ana, Ma thought they were very pretty; Frankie did too but he was coming from a completely different perspective. I smiled as I let them know that they were our best friends in LA and that they were taken. Anna Farrell was interested to learn that Ana was another Bureau agent as she'd not crossed paths with her before. We chatted for a while about some of the cases we'd worked on, in particular the sniper case we'd closed and the home invasions one we were still chasing down, before everyone eventually took their leave.

That night I slept a little better, mostly from exhaustion, though it wasn't what I would call a particularly restful sleep. The sooner I was out of here and back in LA with Maura the better.

The following day was court day though I wasn't sure if I'd get called today or tomorrow, it depended on how things went with other witnesses. I dressed in the charcoal pants suit and the low boots and headed down for breakfast, getting a look from Ma that basically demanded to know why I wasn't in a dress. It turned out I wasn't need in court today, the lawyers were arguing about precedents and points of law, so I'd spent a few hours twiddling my thumbs and reacquainting myself with the case notes before they got around to telling me I wouldn't be needed until tomorrow. Mind you, everything I read just convinced me that we had the right guy behind bars and I just wanted that confirmed so I could go home.

I had an amusing late morning call from Maura, she was sheepish, having stayed over with Nat and Ana last night she was all set to call it a night when they'd handed over her silk pajamas and told her she was sleeping with them, before practically frog marching her into their bedroom where she'd slept spooned between Nat and Ana. The surprise in her voice when I'd told her I'd asked them to do just that had been hilarious but she did agree that she'd slept almost normally. I smiled and told her that it was a stop gap until I got home, but Maura felt guilty, that I'd organised a good night's sleep for her while I wasn't sleeping well here, making me feel a special kinda warm inside; that's my girl, putting everyone else ahead of herself, it's just yet another reason why I love her.

Having been released from court duty that afternoon I'd made my way through the snow to BPD headquarters where I'd spent a few hours with Riley going over my cold cases that she was taking over permanently. Just before I headed home, we got a call; the lawyers having finally got their shit squared away, Korsak, Frost and I would all be required to give evidence tomorrow morning, I wasn't too upset, the quicker we put the appeal to bed the sooner I could get out of here and back to LA. I had dinner at Riley and Susie's place and spent a few hours catching up on the gossip, I have to say for someone who looks like she couldn't hurt a fly Susie's angry disgust at Maura's idiot replacement was a real surprise.

I'd laughed at her polite request to shoot Pike and then head back to LA; she guaranteed that no evidence would ever be found to link me to it. I'd smiled and told her he was now Riley's problem, getting an eye roll in return as Riley pointed out that she'd been tempted often enough. Susie just laughed and said that if Maura saw what a mess Pike had made of her office and her organisation, she'd want to kill him too.

I finally headed back to Beacon Hill about 10.30, it had been a fun night with them both, they were obviously happy together and I was glad they had each other, given all the stress they were both under.

Remembering Ana's advice about looking impressive in court, I ended up wearing the high-heeled knee boots again, teamed with the knee-length light grey pinstripe skirt suit, if nothing else it made Ma happy.

I spent the morning sitting at the court; playing Angry Birds while I waited to give evidence; Frost then Korsak were called, before it was my turn. I stood by the door to the court, getting my game face on; I wanted to nail this shut so I could get the hell away from Boston, back to my home, back to Maura.

"Detective, they're ready for you" I looked up to see the clerk holding the door open and nodded. Showtime.


	18. Chapter 18

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**18 ****Boston Part 2**

Jane's viewpoint

Nodding I strode in to the courtroom, remembering Nat's advice that night back at their place. '_It's just like dealing with the media Jane, make an entrance, command the scene, state your case confidently, let them ask their questions, take the time to formulate an answer, make your answer succinct, factual and to the point, then get the hell out of there as soon as you can_'. I'd seen her work the media and she was very good at it so I wasn't going to argue, besides it was all good advice.

I strode in, took the witness stand and the oath, then sat, looking across at the jury, then at the scumbag at the defense table; Anthony 'Big Tony' Albanese, mid-level enforcer with Boston's biggest Mafia family and a man with a foul temper.

He'd beaten a pimp working for the Irish Mob almost to death, 'sending a warning' apparently. Trouble was what should have been a beating had gone wrong, the pimp had a heart condition and he'd popped a blood vessel, dead at Albanese's hands. Big Tony had bolted but in his hurry to get away he'd tripped a BPD speed trap, they'd gone after him when he hadn't stopped and he'd ended up boxed in and dragged out of his car.

We'd been investigating the murder and a witness had seen a similar car to Albanese's speeding away from the scene; we'd managed to put together a circumstantial case against Albanese, based on forensic evidence Maura had derived from the victim's wounds. The defence hadn't been stupid enough to contest the forensics; putting Maura on the stand wouldn't help their case at all. Instead they were taking the angle that the injuries identified an assailant, but there wasn't enough evidence to tie that evidence directly to Albanese.

Albanese and I had gone a few rounds in the interview room, he and his criminal lawyer; a redundant statement if ever there was one there, had tried to play dumb, but we'd managed to trip him up on one or two statements, which had sent us off chasing some of the Irish mob's working girls.

Their statements had eventually led us to two unsolved murders of prostitutes over the previous five years; both beaten to death, the forensics had been close enough to suggest that the same person had delivered all three beatings. Following up with the Vice squad, we'd found several other prostitutes who'd been beaten so badly they been unable to work, one of them was living in a church-run nursing home, her injuries were so bad.

We'd interviewed them and two had stated that Albanese had been the one to beat them, which had been enough to lay charges. We'd gone through a messy court case, but we'd sent Albanese to prison for the rest of his life, or so we'd thought.

Now they were back, claiming we'd not followed up on the chance of the killing being a local street gang showing some muscle. It was BS of course, but over the last two years, both of our witnesses had died under 'mysterious circumstances', leaving the evidence unsupported by the women's testimony, having them testify in court had been powerful stuff, powerful enough to sway the jury.

Without them we had to fall back on transcripts which didn't have the same impact. The DA's office had made it clear that it was up to me to make the case, I'd been the lead on the case, I'd made the collar and I'd sent him away. Now I had to do it again.

The first hour or so of testimony was pretty straightforward, just restating the case, but just after the lunch recess the defence, led by a slime ball lawyer named Stephen Morrow, had sprung a surprise.

"Detective, I understand that the victims of these crimes were all believed to be working for the Irish mob here in Boston, is that correct?" I nodded once.

"Yes, that's correct" He nodded agreeably, all for appearances sake.

"And that the main competition in the prostitution area to the Irish mob is the Italian crime families, would you agree with that assessment?" I frowned inwardly, but kept my face impassive.

"At the street level, yes that would be correct"He nodded again, all helpful-like.

"And that anything which impacted on the activities of the Italian crime families in this area would help the Irish mob here in Boston" I suddenly felt a cold ball appear in my stomach, I knew exactly where he was going with this. Struggling to remain impassive I glanced at the ADA before answering.

"Potentially, though so do lots of other things" Morrow smiled pleasantly at me, though it was all for show.

"And isn't it true that you were the lead officer on this case, Detective Rizzoli?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I was" Morrow stepped away from the table and walked towards the jury.+

"It's also true that you are personally involved with Maura Isles, the daughter of the head of the Irish mob here in Boston, Paddy Doyle; and that your actions materially aided Paddy Doyle's people in increasing their hold on prostitution in Boston?"

The noise in the room rose as the ADA, Eric Schmidt, jumped to his feet, shouting objections. I sat there and kept my mouth shut as Schmidt made his case to the Judge. Finally the Judge ruled that I should answer.

"I was not involved with Doctor Isles three years ago when this case was first tried. We only commenced dating just over a year ago" Morrow smiled, all surface charm for the jury.

"But you were close friends, weren't you?"

"We worked together, as such we were friends" Morrow smiled, a little less pleasantly.

"Your actions helped Paddy Doyle's people further their hold on the street prostitution industry in Boston, did it not?" I tried desperately to keep my face and voice dispassionate.

"Given the Italian and Irish mobs compete in just about every area of criminal activity anything that hurts one helps the other" Morrow turned to the Judge.

"Your honour, given the nature of the relationship between this detective and the Irish crime syndicate here in Boston, I move that we strike out all of this witnesses' testimony and that of the Medical Examiner's Office. We further seek for this court to declare a misstrial, given evidence from neither this witness nor the Medical Examiner can be considered uncompromised"

Schmidt was on his feet, shouting objections while Morrow stood there as I glanced across to see Albanese trying to hide his smirk, not particularly well ether. For the next few minutes I sat there while the lawyers traded precedents and barbs, but even I could tell they were getting nowhere, Schmidt was reasonably competent but he was sure as hell no Alex Cabot. Finally I'd had enough and turned to the Judge.

"Your honour, may I speak?" I saw Schmidt shoot me a glance and shake his head but ignored him as Stillwell regarded me.

"Detective Rizzoli, given the serious nature of the issues in front of me today, do you think that's wise?" I shook my head and ignored the ADA, speaking directly to the Judge and the jury.

"Your honour, Mister Morrow here is trying to claim that somehow my testimony and that of Doctor Isles is tainted by a distant association. Given it's my reputation and my testimony that's being debated here, I feel I should be heard, at the moment we've only heard one side of the story, I think the court needs to hear both sides" There was silence in the court for about ten seconds, before Morrow stood up and spoke.

"Your honour, I ask that this witness be dismissed, I see no way their testimony can be admitted" Stillwell turned to him and looked over the top of his glasses.

"Mister Morrow, that is not your decision to make, unless I am very much mistaken this is my court and I preside here" With all the dignity and gravitas of a senior Judge Stillwell looked at Morrow and dropped his voice. "Do I make myself clear?" Morrow stood there for a second then nodded. "Now sit down" Morrow dropped into his seat like a stone. The Judge turned to me and regarded me for a moment as I desperately tried not to fidget with my scars.

"Detective Rizzoli, do you believe anything you say here will have a material impact on your fitness as a witness here in my court?" I nodded once, trying to look confident.

"I do your honour" Stillwell looked at me for a few seconds and then sat back.

"Given the outstanding reputation you have and recognising the importance to this trial of the evidence of both you and Doctor Isles, I grant you leave to address the court" I nodded and stood, turning to shoot him an apologetic look.

"Sorry your honour, but I kinda think better on my feet" He nodded as I stepped down from the witness stand and walked out into the open area where the lawyers normally prowled. I swallowed a few times before nodding to myself, I could do this.

"Thank you your honour" I took a deep breath, faced the jury and jumped in. "The testimony of my colleague Doctor Maura Isles has been called into question today on the basis of a distant blood relationship between Doctor Isles and Paddy Doyle. In turn my testimony's been questioned because I'm engaged to Doctor Isles" I unconsciously started pacing between the jury's box and the Judge's bench, my hands starting to gesture and wave as my thoughts started to flow.

"That would suggest that we don't take our oaths of office and to this court seriously. We stand in the witness box and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, in front of god" I was walking in a circuit, my thoughts racing as I glanced up at the jury.

"I don't know about you, but I was raised an Italian Catholic, you kinda take your oaths to god pretty seriously given that upbringing" There was a small whisper of amusement in the jury as I spoke. "Now Mister Morrow here seems to be suggesting that both our testimonies are somehow tainted by an old association; that Doctor Isles is covering for Paddy Doyle because she is related to him and that because I am involved with Doctor Isles my testimony's suspect too" I shrugged, turning to look at Morrow, my eyes automatically narrowing. "Frankly I find his claims insulting" Morrow was on his feet in an instant.

"Objection" Stillwell looked over at him and shook his head.

"Detective Rizzoli was making a statement of fact Counselor. Objection overruled, sit down" I nodded at the Judge gratefully and continued.

"I've been a police officer for many years, my record speaks for itself, or at least I hope it does" I started pacing again. "I'd like to address the concerns that Mister Morrow has raised one at a time"

"Firstly, he claims that Doctor Isle's testimony can't be trusted because she is Paddy Doyle's biological daughter. That may mean something, except that she was placed up for adoption at birth, never knowing who her real parents were. Apparently her own biological mother was told that she had died in childbirth" I shrugged. "I say apparently as Doctor Isles still doesn't know who she was and Paddy Doyle won't tell her" I stopped and looked up at the Judge, then the jury, meeting the eyes of each of them. "That hardly seems like the relationship of someone close to her, especially given she had no idea who he was until just recently" I swung back towards the jury.

"In the last couple of years, Doctor Isles has learnt who her biological father is" I paused and looked at the Judge. "Did she run off wanting to be with him?" I shook my head. "Hell no, she helped us try and convict him, it took us a while, but in the meantime her evidence helped us close down some of Paddy Doyle's operations" I shrugged again. "Doesn't seem like the actions of a doting daughter to me"

I completed the latest leg of my circuit and turned back towards the jury, my hands clasped behind my back. Unconsciously I'd dropped into a pacing rhythm, stalking back and forward, I was sure the boot's steady footfalls would have been loud except for the carpet.

"Did Doctor Isle's distant association with her sperm donor actually have any benefits to her?" I shook my head. "God no, it nearly got her killed, more than once" I turned and moved towards the jury once more. "It nearly got us both killed on several occasions, by people trying to hurt her to somehow get to Paddy Doyle" I looked across the faces of the jurors as I paced towards them.

"Thanks to the efforts of Doctor Isles, a number of cases have been successfully closed against the Irish mob, Paddy Doyle's organisation. Without her hard work and dedication, several of those cases may have failed. I stopped and looked at the jury, sweeping my eyes over them. "But they did not fail and instead a number of members of the Irish and the Italian mobs today sit in prison cells because of her efforts, including Tony Albanese here" Morrow was on his feet in an instant.

"Objection Your Honour, Detective Rizzoli presumes guilt on my client's part" I shrugged and spoke before Stillwell could.

"I stated that Mr Albanese here went to jail partly because of the results of forensic evidence overseen by Doctor Isles" I shrugged again. "I was stating a fact, not commenting on his guilt or otherwise" Morrow turned to Stillwell who waved him back to his seat.

"Overuled, continue please Detective" I nodded at the judge before I turned and pointed at Morrow.

"But the defence claims that her evidence is somehow untrustworthy, because of a biological link which Doctor Isles didn't seek, didn't welcome and sure as hell doesn't return" I let my arm drop and swung my eyes across the jury again. "My friend and colleague bears the name of her parents, Richard and Constance Isles. They may not have been her biological parents but they are her true parents. Paddy Doyle was a sperm donor, nothing more. He abandoned her at birth, while apparently telling her birth mother her child had been stillborn" I shrugged. "Nothing there suggests anything that would build a close familial bond" Seeing a few nods from jurors, I turned and started another circuit, heading back towards Judge Stillwell's bench. I had to convince him as well.

"Doctor Isles is considered an expert witness on forensics medicine, consulted by numerous state and federal agencies due to her acknowledged expertise. The defence seeks to have that evidence overturned on the basis of an accidental relationship. The thing is, Maura Isles is a scientist and everything has to be proven in science, especially if it's going to be used as evidence" I swung around again to complete another circuit across the open space as I continued speaking.

"The good thing about science though, it's got to be factual and it's gotta be something you can reproduce, in any lab anywhere. Her work's peer-reviewed cause she's a frequent contributor to scientific journals about forensics, some of those articles directly relate to evidence used in successful cases and trials" I swung back towards the Judge.

"There's never been a single complaint about her work, neither in the peer-reviewed press, nor in any of her cases, not a one" I came to a stop, one arm pointing at the Defence table. "You notice Mister Morrow here isn't arguing against the forensics in this case, they accept her work there, so this has nothing to do with Doctor Isles competence" Morrow started to get to his feet, but at a wave from the Judge he sank back.

"Instead it's about my testimony" I started pacing again. "Apparently just because I'm closely linked to Maura Isles, who's distantly linked to Paddy Doyle, that means somehow I'm untrustworthy" I shot him a filthy look, it was a good thing I didn't have my gun on me, I'd be tempted to use it, this was my life Morrow had spat on, my honor, my word, my relationship with Maura.

"If I'm so untrustworthy when it comes to Paddy Doyle, there's one person who'd happily agree" I saw people sit up straighter, wondering where I was going. "Paddy Doyle himself wouldn't trust me; after all I shot him, put him in hospital and sent him to jail, where he's waiting to be tried on racketeering charges. He's there because I put a shot into him before he could put one into me" I swung round, stopping and staring down at Morrow; god knows what my face looked like.

"Paddy Doyle lay in his hospital bed and told me that if I hadn't shot him, he sure as hell would have shot me" I shrugged. "Hardly seems like someone who I'd be doing any favors' for" Morrow stood and looked to the Judge.

"Objection, hearsay" I turned to look at the Judge, who looked back.

"Well detective?"

"Several other people, including members of the Boston Police Department heard the statement your honor, I can give you their names and you can call them if you want" Stillwell pursed his lips then spoke.

"Who exactly are we talking about Detective?"

"Lieutenant Sean Cavanagh and Detective Barry Frost of the BPD, plus Doctor Maura Isles" Maura had been in the room, Cavanagh and Frost just outside. I was struck by a thought and smiled. "There was one other witness your honor" The Judge peered over his glasses at me and spoke, his voice questioning.

"And who might that be Detective?" I smiled, knowing I was about to throw the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons.

"Paddy Doyle himself" There was a ripple of whispering around the room as I continued. "God knows I'm not exactly his favourite person, something I'm sure he'd be happy to tell everyone here" I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could. "You could call him to testify if you want" Stillwell nodded slowly to himself then looked across at Morrow, who was standing there, his face held rigid.

"I don't think that will be necessary thank you Detective Rizzoli, objection overruled" He looked at me again and I nodded in thanks.

"So basically Mister Morrow here thinks I'm an unreliable witness because I'm lucky enough to be engaged to someone who is unfortunate enough to be linked by an accident of birth to Paddy Doyle" I looked down at the ring on my finger and smiled for a moment, then looked up.

"Obviously we now know where Mister Morrow sits on the whole nature versus nurture thing, he obviously thinks that distant ties of blood mean more than a lifetime of love and support from family and friends. That Maura Isles doesn't exist, instead that she's Maura Doyle" I turned and shot the dirtiest, most contemptuous look I was capable of at Morrow, who broke our eye contact and looked down at his notes. I turned back and started pacing again.

"Maura Doyle died on the day she was born; you can go and see her headstone in Boston's Central Burying Ground. On that same day Maura Isles was born, daughter of Constance and Richard Isles. Educated at some of the best schools here and overseas, she eventually came back to Boston and applied her talent and intellect to solving murders, working with the BPD Homicide unit; she's helped solve some of the most difficult cases we've ever faced" I shrugged. "Not much sign of Paddy Doyle's influence there" I swung around again, for a moment I almost looked to see if I was wearing a path in the carpet, smiling to myself a little before I pressed on, I felt like I was on a roll and needed to bring this one home.

"That leaves me. That because I'm involved with Maura, that somehow the non-existent hold Paddy Doyle has over Maura then somehow means that she then influences what I do when it comes to him too. I call that bull…" I paused, seeing Stillwell's disapproving eye on me. "Sorry your honor" He nodded and I started again. "I call that ridiculous" I heard a couple of poorly-suppressed sniggers as I swung round and started back towards the jury.

"Yeah, I'm involved with Maura Isles. I'm pretty damned lucky to be able to stand there and say that. That's not just because she's smart and beautiful and someone really special and I love her" I sighed.

"Nope, I'm lucky because I've lost track of the number of times she or I have almost died doing this job over the last four years" I found myself grimacing at the memories. "We deal with serial killers, murderers, arsonists, psychopaths, gangers and mobsters and lots of other dangerous people and we do our damndest to put them behind bars. That puts both of us in danger; god knows we've both got the physical and mental scars to prove it"

"That said, we keep doing it; Maura and I have relocated to California where we now work for the Los Angeles Police Department but that doesn't mean our lives are any easier. In fact not so long ago I spent a morning huddled behind a car that was slowly being shot to pieces by a sniper who'd already killed eight people, including two cops. It's what we do, we solve crimes even if they put us at risk, it's the result of the oath we swear working in law enforcement" I stopped when I stood and looked across the jury, then back at the Judge.

"The only thing I want for Paddy Doyle is for him to stay behind bars for the rest of his life. Maybe with Paddy out of the way permanently people will stop looking for ways to hurt him by going after Maura. One of the reasons we moved to LA was because out there Paddy Doyle's name means nothing and the tenuous links Mister Morrow here seems so interested in mean nothing either" I sighed.

"There we can just do our jobs, far from Paddy Doyle and all the shi...the stuff that surrounds him" I turned to look at Albanese and Morrow. "As for doing anything to help Paddy Doyle's people take over prostitution, well prostitution is the responsibility of the Vice Squad, not Homicide" I shook my head.

"I try and solve murders. I believe that we sent the right person to jail three years ago and that Tony Albanese should go back to a cell right next to Paddy Doyle, so they can spend the rest of their lives together paying for their sins" Morrow was on his feet shouting objections but I ignored him, walking back to the witness stand and sitting down.

The Judge waved Morrow back into his seat and turned to look at me, his voice quiet.

"Have you finished Detective Rizzoli?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm finished giving my statement your honor, now I'm back to just being a witness, if you'll let me" Stillwell sat back and stared at me for almost a minute as I tried not to fidget, then turned to Morrow.

"I believe that you were cross examining the witness Counselor?" I looked up at Morrow, seeing him staring back at me as I smiled as nastily as I possibly could. '_Bring it on_'. He must have realised what that look meant as he stood and looked at the Judge.

"No more questions your honor" I could see the furious look on Albanese's face as he rounded on Morrow but the lawyer just looked at him and shook his head slowly, you could see the subtext right there; '_it's over_'. The Judge turned and looked at me.

"You may step down Detective" I nodded and stood, making my way towards the exit. "Oh, Detective Rizzoli?" I stopped and turned back to face the Judge, to find him looking at me over his glasses.

"I have two regrets Detective Rizzoli, the first being that you have moved to California, which means I won't see you testify again in my court" I nodded carefully, straightening up under his scrutiny, wondering where this was going. "The second is that you chose law enforcement instead of law, you'd have made one hell of a lawyer" I nodded, swallowing into a suddenly constricted throat. Finally I managed to speak.

"Thank you your honor" I paused for a moment, till I was sure I had myself under control. "Judge Stillwell, it's been an honor and a privilege" He watched me for a moment, like he could read my mind and then nodded.

"You are excused detective" I nodded and walked out the door.


	19. Chapter 19

**Intersecting Lines Book 3 **

**19 Rizzoli vs. Rizzoli**

Jane's viewpoint

I was packing everything up before heading back to Logan and my flight home, I'd said my goodbyes to Ma and the guys in at headquarters, the ones I wanted to anyway, and was about to call a cab when I heard the front door bell ringing. I walked out into the main room and could see through the window that it was my brother Tommy.

For a moment I felt like ignoring him, I really didn't want to have to deal with him right now, I just wanted to get the hell away from Boston, get back to LA and Maura and I really didn't need his shit right now.

"I know you're in there Jane, if you don't open this goddamned door I'm gonna kick it in" His shouted threat was accompanied by a loud drumming as he hammered the door. Taking a deep breath I walked to the door and threw it open, seeing my little brother there, full of piss and wind, his face red with cold and maybe anger.

"So it's true, you're back" I nodded, his tone was angry and bitter.

"I was, just for a few days, I had to give evidence for an appeal" He took a step forward.

"You gonna keep me out here in the cold or you going to let me in?" I stepped back from the door, it was cold out there.

"Oh yeah, sorry, come in" He pushed past me and into the house as I closed the door and turned to follow him as he moved into the living area, where he spun to face me.

"So when you coming back Jane?" He frowned, his voice clipped. "You and Maura?"

"I'm not, we're not" I shrugged. "We're settled in Los Angeles, we're happy there"

"That's crap and you know it" I looked back at him, trying not to let my irritation show as I waited for his latest flash of brilliance to play out.

"Excuse me?" He gestured around the room.

"Boston's your home, Maura's home, this's Maura's house, she should be here" I shrugged, trying to play it calm, not giving him any reason to blow whatever cool he might have had.

"Not anymore. Los Angeles is home now, we're both settled there, happy"

"What are you running from Jane?" I frowned, trying to follow his logic, not always an easy task, Tommy's always run on emotion and anger, logic's never really been his strong suit.

"Nothing, we've found our place there, job, friends, it's our place now"

"Why you hiding Maura out there, how come she isn't here now" I tried not to let what I was thinking show as I got an inkling of what he was on about; Maura, with Tommy it always came back to Maura.

"She has a job to do Tommy, same as me. She's doing hers there; I'm doing mine here, at least for a few more hours"

"She had a job here, a home, family, until you dragged her away from us"

"I didn't drag her anywhere Tommy, we both had job opportunities there, good ones, better ones than here" I shook my head. "We explained this to everyone including you before we moved out there. This was good deal for both of us so we took it"

"Like hell, you ran away to LA, ran from everything here, dragged Maura the hell away from all her friends, we're her family and you took her away" I nodded to myself. Of course it was about Maura, with Tommy it was always about Maura, that's when it wasn't all about him.

"We made the decision to spend time out of Boston; that was our decision, both of us, one we're both happy with" He still wasn't getting it, not listening or more likely not wanting to hear it.

"So when are you coming back?"

"I told you, I'm not, we're not. We're happy there; we have great friends, important jobs, a home, so we're staying" He shook his head angrily. I don't know what had got him so steamed, he'd always been a dick about us being together, but this was new.

"So that's your decision, didn't Maura get a say?"

"No Tommy, it wasn't my decision, it was our decision" He slashed his hand across between us, cutting me off.

"Bull, you've always pushed Maura to do what you want. It's always been about what you want"

"That's crap and you know it. No one tells Maura what to do, least of all me" I shook my head. "We make all the big decisions together, that's what couples do" Tommy sneered, it made his face ugly.

"Couples, yeah right. You think you've got what you want but you don't" He stepped a little closer. "You can't give her what she wants" I felt my teeth grind in frustration and growing anger.

"And what the hell would that be Tommy?"

"Like you don't know" I took a breath as I tried to stamp down on my temper before speaking.

"C'mon Tommy enlighten me, what flash of insight have you got this time?"

"You can't give her real love. That's why she needs a husband, someone who can love her right, give her the kids she wants" I felt my head lower as my shoulders hunched, I could feel the anger building inside me, Tommy was treading into places he shouldn't, dangerous places. With effort I forced my head up and kept my voice calm.

"And let me guess. You're the one to give her that right?"

"At least I can, you can't give her kids" I forced the scowl that had taken up residence on my face away.

"Sounds like you have all the answers Tommy" I shook my head. "Don't suppose you've heard of donor insemination, or In-vitro fertilization, or intrauterine insemination?" I saw his frown. "Trust me, we know all about them" We'd looked into all of them, Maura had done all the research and we'd talked about all of them, plus adopting a child, or more than one, we didn't care about the method; we both wanted a family of our own.

"Why do you need test tube kids, Maura needs a husband, someone who'll give her just what she needs, the old fashioned way" I clenched my teeth to bite off my immediate response, Tommy had always been a jerk, now he was being an ass, an ass on his way to a beating if he kept on. "She'd probably prefer it anyway" He gave me a sleazy smirk. "She just needs a good Rizzoli fucking, the kind you can't give her" I felt my teeth clench hard before I managed to push out words through them, even to my ears my voice was low and verging on feral.

"Tommy, you do not get to talk about Maura that way, ever" He just smirked even wider; he knew he was getting to me. He'd always been able to get to me, all through growing up, he'd been the youngest and Ma's favourite, using that to avoid retribution for being a complete dick. I'd been hopeful he'd started to grow out of it, looks like I was wrong about him, yet again.

"Why, afraid she might like some Rizzoli dick more than Rizzoli snatch" I suddenly realised I was looking up at him again, my head had lowered again as the anger built up within me, I took a small step forward as I spoke, my voice dangerous even to my ears, unfortunately Tommy was either being particularly stupid or particularly vicious, I wouldn't have bet on it either way.

"Get out" Tommy just sneered at me and took a step forward, close enough to do something stupid.

"Go to hell Jane" Unconsciously muscle memory and training started to take over, my left hand straightening into a karate position while my right folded itself into a fist, my body starting to turn slightly side on.

"Either leave now or leave in a gurney, I don't care Tommy, but either way you're leaving"

I saw the punch coming a mile off, a few months ago it might have caught me by surprise; now though, not a chance. Compared to Ana's lightning fast strikes this was so slow and obvious he might as well have started in the next county, giving me enough time to consider three counters, all of which hurt. Instead I stepped to one side and let it pass through empty air. I hoped he got the message but Tommy always was a little slow on the uptake; he swung again, this time with his right fist.

This time I let the swing pass before I grabbed his right wrist in my right hand, bringing my left hand up to force his elbow the wrong way. Too hard and I would have broken it, left it shattered, instead I used just enough pressure and pain to push him off his feet and onto his knees as I held him there, his face wincing, his voice urgent.

"Ow! Jesus, leggo" I ignored him, keeping up the pressure as I leaned forwards, my voice low and clipped, suffused with the anger I was feeling.

"Remember Tommy, I could have shattered your arm, but I didn't" I put just a little more pressure into his elbow, getting a muffled scream out of him. "Think about that the next time you go to hit me, cause I'll put you in the hospital if I have to" With that I let go and stepped back as he stared up at me from his knees.

"What the fuck happened to you Jane?" I looked down on him with a combination of pity and contempt.

"I grew up Tommy, I stopped being the person you kept walking over, stopped listening to Ma's excuses and started treating you like the angry punk kid you still are" He sneered as he climbed back to his feet.

"What makes you so high and fucking mighty?" I shrugged, slowly forcing myself to relax, I didn't think he'd be stupid enough to take another swing; I'd surprised him and probably scared him a little.

"I dunno Tommy, maybe it's because I own up to my mistakes, my bad decisions, not run from them when they blow up in my face" He sneered for want of anything better.

"Fuck off Jane" I shook my head as I crossed my arms in front of me.

"Is that the best you can do, you really are our father's son. Don't get what you want and you sulk. Jesus you really are a pathetic kid" Tommy took a step forward, stopping at my glare as I uncrossed my arms. Maybe he wasn't quite as stupid as I remembered.

"Hey, you leave Pop out of this" Tommy had always idolized Pop; even his walking away hadn't done anything to change that, unfortunately.

"Why? He wouldn't own up to his mistakes either. Instead of fixing them he ran, leaving Ma to deal with it. For fucks sake Tommy, she lives in Maura's guest house because he didn't pay his taxes and lost the house. Ma lost everything and he ran off to Florida with some blonde bimbo"

"Pop has nothing to do with this"

"You're kidding me right? He has everything to do with this. Frankie and I, we're Ma's kids, but you? You're your father's son through and through. Screwing everything up and running from your mistakes" I felt my lips turn into a scowl. "You turned out just like him"

Tommy's scowl deepened, I could see his fists ball and for a moment I thought he was going to ignore my advice. I lifted one hand and beckoned him forward, like Neo in the Matrix, wondering if he was really that stupid. His eyes flicked to my hand, then back up, taking me in. I was standing there relaxed, waiting for him, he could probably see I didn't have the slightest doubt that I could take him easily, after all the sparring with Ana I was confident Tommy didn't stand a chance. As I watched I could see him weighing up his chances; staring into his eyes I could see the exact moment he folded.

"Fuck you Jane" I shook my head, was this what it had come to? Where was the kid he'd been; now all I saw was a punk, full of piss and wind. Finally I spoke, my voice soft and a little sad.

"I love my brothers, Frankie and Tommy. Frankie's the same great guy I knew growing up; Tommy not so much. If you see him, tell him I want my brother back" He forced a snort out.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Tommy was a good kid, messed up a bit, afraid of taking responsibility for his actions, but despite being a screw up, I loved him. You're not him, you're bitter and angry about everything, that you didn't get what you want, everything from living in this house to having Maura"

"That's cause you interfered…"

No it isn't, you screwed up Tommy" I took a step back, waving my arm to take in the house, Boston, his life, everything. "Your entire life's been a string of screw ups"

"You know nothing about me, not since you got so high and goddamned mighty. Made detective, started fucking Maura, moved in here, you forgot about where you came from, forgot all about us, the little people who don't get to live a life of luxury on their girlfriend's tab"

"Tommy..." He sneered, an ugly expression made even uglier on his face.

"Lemme guess, you pay her back, on your back?" I took a step forward, my hands coming up.

"If you mention her name like that again, you'll be leaving with the paramedics" He shook his head, one hand cutting across the space between us.

"You wouldn't do it, you've got your precious reputation to protect" I snorted in disbelief. How much rent was he paying for that dream world he lived in?

"You really think anyone would care Tommy? Given your record and background, no one would believe a word you'd say. That string of minor charges that Frankie's got you off of" I didn't miss the surprise on his face. "Yeah, I know about them, the fights and the drunk and disorderly's, I know" He half turned away.

"You don't know nothing about me"

"I know enough to know you're not the person you once were" I took a step forward, one hand reaching out for him, even as he ignored it. "I want my brother back, the kid I stood up for all through school, the guy I played street ball with, the baby brother I love. You're not him; you're not even a pale shadow. When you find him, call me, I'll be there for him"

"You were never there for me Jane. When they threw me in jail for that accident, where were you?"

"What accident? You were drunk, behind the wheel of a car, you ran down a priest for gods sake"

"It was an accident" I shook my head angrily, not this shit again.

"No it was not. You were twice the legal limit when you got behind that wheel. It wasn't the first time either. You'd been warned before but you still got behind the wheel drunk. The only good thing was you didn't kill him, otherwise you'd be spending most of your life behind bars"

"No thanks to my sister the cop. Too busy to come and speak for me in court"

"To say what, that you were a good kid who'd made a mistake? That'd be a lie Tommy, doing that in court's called perjury" He sneered at me.

"We're family, families do what they have to for family" I just stared him down.

"If it had been a mistake, I would have been there, but it wasn't a mistake was it Tommy? You'd been doing stupid shit and getting away with it for years, finally it came back to bite you on the ass" He waved his hand dismissively at me.

"Yeah, no thanks to you" I folded my arms and stared at him.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"The great Jane Rizzoli, too busy with her career and kissing ass with the cops and the mayor and everyone else who'll help her get her to detective to spend time with her brother. Was I an embarrassment Jane, someone you didn't want to be seen with because it'd hurt your fucking career?" I wondered how he could be so delusional, talk about self-centred.

"No Tommy, I had a job to do and most of your 'new friends' didn't like the cops, remember when you told me not to come round and see you cause it made your new friends 'uncomfortable'? Yeah, you may have forgotten, but I didn't"

"At least they were there"

"So was I Tommy, until you told me not to come around" That still hurt, even after all this time, not that I'd ever let him know that. "How many of those friends of yours are around now?"

"Plenty" He spat back at me. "Still around, not like you"

"Well then why don't you run off and hang out with them instead of wasting my time, I have a plane to catch" He sneered, it wasn't pretty.

"Yeah that'd be right, you ashamed of us Jane? Gotta get back to your new life, far away from your embarrassing family" He waved at me dismissively. "Fuck off out of Boston Jane, you don't belong here and we don't want you here" I shook my head again, he wasn't making sense, but hey, it was Tommy here, common sense was never his thing.

"First you want to know when we're coming back, then you're telling me I don't belong here. Mind you consistency was never a strong suit for you Tommy" He went to say something but I kept on. "You're just pissed that I'm calling you on your crap. The only reason you want us back is so you can delude yourself into thinking that you have any chance whatsoever with Maura" I just shook my head at him. "You will never, ever be anything more than an acquaintance to Maura"

"Why, because you moved her across the country to have her to yourself, you always were a selfish bitch Jane" I felt my lips curl into an evil smile.

"No you idiot, because Maura and I are engaged to be married" The look on his face was priceless, he gaped like a landed fish. Finally he pulled himself together enough to speak.

"Yeah right, bullshit" I just held up my hand showing him the engagement ring, seeing his eyes widen. "Fuck that! You're keeping her in LA to hide her from us and now you're doing this for the same reason"

"Jesus Tommy, how stupid actually are you? Do you honestly think I could force Maura to do anything, let alone move across the country and get engaged? You really are delusional"

"Nah, I reckon you moved her away to keep her all to yourself, afraid that if she stayed she'd see you for what you are"

"And what the fuck is that?"

"A pathetic loser Jane, scared of losing the only person who actually showed any interest in you, so scared you're rushing to get married to keep her" He barked out a laugh. "Well she'll see through you soon enough, see what everyone else does, you're a loser Jane "He turned a shit eating grin on me. "Maura loves cock Jane; look at all those guys she used to fuck. Sooner or later she's gonna decide you're not cutting it for her and she'll go back to fucking guys, getting what you can't give her"

I shook my head, Tommy had always been a weak shit but this was a new low, not to mention he didn't know either of us at all. His shit might have worked on me back before we moved to LA, but I wasn't the same person I was back then and neither was Maura. I went to say something but he spoke again.

"And when she does, I'll be here; I can give her all the cock she needs. She wants Rizzoli cock and I'll be the one to give it to her, I'll be the one fucking her and you'll be all alone, again" He smirked, it looked ugly on him. "I bet she'd look cute on her knees, my cock in her mouth, or face down while I fuck her tight little ass..."

The backhander across his face he didn't see coming knocked him off his feet and sent him spinning. He looked up at me as I forced the red mist over my eyes back under control, staring down at him with anger and contempt. It took a moment but I finally had myself under enough control to speak, though my voice was low and clipped with the white-hot anger coursing through me, my blood pounding in my ears

"I will tell you this once Tommy, if you ever, ever talk about Maura like that again, I will kill you" I smiled as coldly as I could manage. "I'm a homicide detective, I know all the tricks, you'd never be found and even if you were, there wouldn't be enough left to identify"

Tommy rolled to his feet, taking a step back as I advanced on him; he took another step back as I followed him, then another, until he was backed up against the kitchen bench as I hemmed him in. I could see the real fear appear in his eyes as he tried to bluster his way out of it.

"You're bluffing" I shook my head slowly.

"Try me" For a second he stood there, then looked away. Satisfied, I stepped back.

"We're building a new life in Los Angeles. That doesn't mean we won't be visiting Boston though. If you do or say anything stupid or disrespectful of Maura when we do, I will deal with you personally. Do you understand me?" He said nothing as I waited. Finally I ground out the words. "I asked if you understood me Tommy" He tried to muster up some bluster.

"Yeah yeah, fucking whatever" I saw right through the false bravado to the fear underneath.

"In the meantime you might consider just how much growing up you need to do. Until then, get out before I throw you out"

He stood there for a moment, I thought he was going to say something, before he looked at me, really looked, like he was seeing me clearly for the first time, then without a word turned and walked out.

To be honest I was happy to see him go. That flight back to LA couldn't leave fast enough.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N **Standard disclaimers apply: I don't own these characters, their ownership resides with the legal rights holders, I'm just grateful for the opportunity to play with them

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**20 Back to Work**

It's not what you'd expect based on what television and the tourist people tell you, but it does rain in Los Angeles. I'd flown back into LA into a storm front that had drenched LA. I didn't mind though, it was an improvement on the cold in Boston and the gloom sort of matched my mood after Tommy and all his shit.

I'd not wanted Maura to worry, so I'd buried the incident with Tommy, it turned I'd not needed to worry though, she'd practically leapt into my arms when I opened the door and once she finished ravishing my mouth as I stood there in the doorway, she'd dragged me to bed, resulting in an early night and a very long, exhausted sleep, eventually, once Maura was done with me that is.

I'd walked back into work on a sunny Friday morning feeling a lot better about life, getting a few questions from the team about Boston which I downplayed; after all the bad guy went back to jail and the good guys won, at least that's what I told them. Brenda pulled me into her office later that morning to congratulate me on what I'd done in court; I was a bit surprised, until I learnt that Natalie had sent around transcripts of what had happened in there to everyone. Brenda had smiled at me and nodded.

"You did very well in Boston Jane, very well" I shrugged.

"It was the truth" She sat back and regarded me for a moment.

"He was right though, that Judge" I blinked, not understanding. "You would have made a good lawyer" I held up my hand to stop her, embarrassed by her praise.

"I'm happy to leave that stuff to Alex, that sorta thing's not me at all" She nodded slowly.

"Perhaps, but at least it means we get your services here, rather than a courtroom" I nodded.

"Just the way I like it" I looked up. "While I remember it are you and Sharon good for tonight?" We were all heading off to O'Malley's tonight for their trivia competition..

"Oh yes, we're looking forward to it" Nodding I headed back to my desk for a while then did the morning coffee run with Tao and was back going over the latest info on the home invasion case, the guys hadn't turned up much new while I was away, when Brenda strode out of her office, pulling her cherry red trench coat on.

"Excuse me everyone, we've just been notified of another home invasion, so let's get moving"

Forty minutes later and we were out in Gardena, yet another home invasion, similar to the others but different. The same M.O. but the victims didn't fit the pattern, working stiffs rather than well to do upper middle class, there were a few other things off as well.

The door had been smashed in with a battering ram as per usual, but the home invasion crew had basically broken in and shot everyone. There were traces of what looked like methamphetamine on the table and a few 20 and 50 dollar bills scattered around the floor, probably left as they'd fallen into pools of blood and were pretty irrevocably stained, sure as hell no business or bank would take them. It was pretty damned obvious that the victims hadn't exactly been law-abiding citizens, an impression reinforced by the drug paraphernalia littering the room, the baggies, the scales and such.

The house was rented by a man and woman, both Japanese. Nothing out of the ordinary there, this was Gardena after all; lots of Asians including Japanese lived here. What didn't fit was that in addition to the mid-thirties man and woman dead on the floor were three other men, all dead from gunshots. The shots had alarmed the neighbors who had called 911. One of them had seen a UPS van leaving the scene in a hurry; that had been what had triggered the call to Major Crimes.

We fanned out through the house, putting things together, though it all seemed pretty straight forward, the door had been smashed in, the home invasion crew had fanned out through the place, shooting everyone where they'd found them, one guy was dead two steps off the can, his pants still pooled around his ankles.

"This wasn't no extortion attempt" It was Sanchez. "It's an execution" I nodded; they'd killed everyone in the place then grabbed whatever they were after and bolted. Tao leaned back from his examination of the table's contents and looked up at the Chief.

"I can't be certain without a lab analysis, but this sure looks like methamphetamine" He shrugged. "It looks pretty clean too, it may be Cherry Blossom" I looked across at him and asked the question.

"What's Cherry Blossom?" He glanced down at the table and back up.

"That's the street name for imported meth, usually from Japan, real pure, like really pure" Gabriel chimed in.

"Comparing Cherry Blossom to the locally-made stuff's like comparing a diamond to a Swarovski crystal, they may look alike but that's where the similarities end" I nodded, I hadn't worked vice and narcotics for years so I wasn't across the latest street drugs of choice, especially here in LA. Provenza looked up from where he was prowling around the dining room table.

"Japanese mafia doing home invasions, Japanese drugs on the table, looks like we have a definite connection here" Sanchez grimaced.

"Could mean something" Brenda glanced up at him, her voice calm.

"Likely nothing good detective" Before anyone could reply Maura looked up from where she was crouched down next to one of the victims, a guy in his late 30s or early 40s.

"I believe the connection is deeper than it first appears Chief; if I could ask you to observe this victim?" We all turned to see that Maura had unfastened several of his shirt buttons, ignoring the blood that had soaked through, revealing an intricately tattooed torso. Well except where the two shots through the chest had messed up the artwork. "It appears that this victim is a member of the Yakuza, a senior one actually" Brenda frowned at her description as did a few others while I held a smile in, Maura wasn't one for speculation. Brenda made her way over and stood there, looking down at Maura and the victim.

"And how exactly do you figure that Doctor?" Maura smiled at Brenda's query.

"The victim exhibits the same highly decorative tattoo's typical of Yakuza members, for example as seen in the deceased suspect in the previous home invasion, thereby suggesting a Yakuza connection" She pointed to the intricate colours af a dragon winding around the torso. "This victim's tattoo is also done in accordance with the traditions of Irezumi, using ancient tattooing techniques that are specific to Japan and in particular of the more traditional Yakuza clans" Brenda nodded, then spoke.

"How about being a senior member of the Yakuza?" Maura nodded and lifted the victim's left hand, showing that two joints of the pinkie and one joint of the ring finger there were missing.

"Yubitsume, the ritual of severing a joint of a finger as an act of atonement for an error, is specific to the Yakuza. The little finger is the usual one used as in feudal Japan it weakened the Yakuza member's sword hand, increasing their reliance on the Oyabun. Severing the joint was both an apology for failure and an act of more closely tying one's loyalty to the Yakuza group" She turned the hand around, examining it carefully for a few seconds, then looking up at us..

"To have lost three segments of two fingers, indicating three separate acts requiring atonement, but still remain within the Yakuza suggests someone whose service was both significant and valued by the Oyabun. Such a person would have to be trusted and respected enough to remain in service; combined with the intricate tattooing it strongly suggests that the deceased is in fact a senior member of the Yakuza" I hid my grin, I'd learnt long ago, don't question Maura when she states a fact, something Brenda and the others had just been reminded of. Brenda went to speak when one of Maura's team who was over near another victim called out, obviously he'd been listening in.

"Doctor Isles, this victim also has tattoos, plus they're missing a joint" Maura nodded and stood, walking over to examine the body, murmuring a compliment to her team member as she did. A few seconds later she stood and made her way around the other three victims, carefully avoiding the blood pools as she did, checking each before looking up at us.

"Three of the four male victims exhibit Irezumi tattoo's the youngest however does not, nor does the female victim, although that is a non-conclusive indicator of Yakuza involvement or lack thereof as it is extremely unusual for a woman in the Yakuza to receive the Irezumi" An amused female voice entered the room.

"Male chauvinist gangsters, what's the world coming to?" I looked up to see Natalie standing in the doorway, arms crossed, leaning against the doorjamb, smiling and looking nice in a cream pants suits and heels. She shrugged, looking across at Brenda. "Morning Chief, I was out at a meeting when I got the call, sorry I'm late" Brenda acknowledged her presence with a nod.

"That's quite alright Miss Dearing, it would appear that your good work in calming the Asian media was for nought" She grimaced. "I spose I can't keep up putting off those interviews can I?" Natalie nodded once.

"Afraid not Chief' She looked around the room and took in the paraphernalia on the table.

"If these people were involved in Meth sales and distribution that's a different story to another family getting hit, but it still hit an Asian household." She glanced around the room before looking back at Brenda. "I'll talk to you when you're finished about what we can tell the media" Brenda nodded once.

"I take it they're here" She got a wry smile from Nat.

"Afraid so Chief" Brenda's mouth twisted.

"Marvelous. Thank you Natalie" She turned back to Maura. "Thank you Doctor Isles, you can move the victims once Buzz here has finished with recording the scene" Maura nodded as Buzz continued moving around the room, filming everything. Brenda meanwhile was assigning tasks.

"Lieutenant Tao, could I ask you to take charge of the analysis of the substances on the table please. Confirm please what it actually was, in particular if it was Cherry Blossom" Tao nodded as Brenda's eyes fell on another victim. "Lieutenant Flynn, would you chase up our victim's identities please. If as Doctor Isles suggests these were Yakuza, then it raises a number of questions regarding what exactly transpired here" He nodded then cocked his head.

"You thinking it was an internal matter maybe Chief?" Brenda thought it over for a second then nodded.

"Perhaps Lieutenant or perhaps some inter-clan disputes" She narrowed her eyes for a moment then turned back to Maura. "Doctor Isles, I don't spose you could tell if those tattoos are the same style or are of different kind from the deceased suspect?" Maura shook her head sadly as she gracefully stood.

"I am afraid that while there may well be subtle differences between each of the Yakuza clans, my knowledge of them is not sufficient to identify any differences conclusively" She paused for a moment then smiled. "On the other hand I am sure that the Japanese Police would be intimately familiar with such clan-based details" I nodded, it made sense. Brenda smiled and nodded as well.

"I might ask Agent Romanov to make some enquiries about talking to one of their experts" She glanced around the body-strewn room then muttered to herself. "It surely can't hurt" She was quiet for a second then looked up. "In the meantime we have a crime scene to process and work to do. Detective Sanchez, would you please canvas the surrounding neighborhood, see if any of the neighbors noticed anything" Sanchez nodded and made his way out the door as Brenda looked around. "Detective Rizzoli, please talk to Traffic Division and see if they have any leads on the presumably stolen UPS van that departed the scene" She frowned. "It's a long shot I admit but we have to try"

I nodded, seeing several hours of probably fruitless work reviewing traffic camera footage ahead of me, but that's police work for you, mostly dull drudgery looking for scraps of clues.. Brenda meanwhile had found her next victim.

"Lieutenant Provenza, while Detective Flynn is running down the identities of the three unidentified victims, I'd like you to start running down what we know about the couple that rented this house. If that is indeed them there on the floor then we have some kind of starting point for your inquiries" He nodded.

"On it Chief" Buzz looked up from his camera lens and spoke.

"I've finished here Chief" Brenda nodded and looked around.

"Thank you Buzz. Doctor Isles, the bodies are all yours" Maura nodded and turned to her team, getting them moving as the Chief turned to Gabriel. "Sergeant, please conduct a thorough search of the premises for anything of interest, if they were distributing narcotics through here there may be other indicators hidden away" He nodded and turned to head up the corridor as Brenda looked round, seeing me still here, raising her eyebrow in a question.

"Sorry Chief, I'll be right on it, I just need to talk to Maura for a sec" She nodded as Natalie stepped forward, already talking about what they were going to say to the media. Meanwhile I'd walked over to Maura and stood close, getting a smile from her.

"Hello Jane" I smiled back, I couldn't help it really, it's Maura after all.

"Hi Maur, just wanted to remind you that you can't work late tonight, we still have trivia tonight" Her smile widened.

"Of course, please ensure that Brenda and Sharon are there too, if we are not careful they will excuse themselves due to their workload and they need to relax as much as the rest of us" I nodded.

"Will do, see you tonight" She smiled again, the look in her eyes reflecting the warmth of her smile as I quickly bent down and gave her a careful, PG-rated kiss, we were on the clock after all.

"I will see you then. Bye" I nodded and turned, heading out the door, reflecting that Maura was probably right, Brenda would probably lose herself in work if I didn't head her off, seeing her standing there with Nat I had an evil idea, pausing as I passed them, getting both blondes attention as I did.

"Yes detective?" I smiled.

"Just wanted to remind you that we all have trivia tonight?" A quick frown passed across her features.

"I'm not sure I can make it, given the case…" I noticed Natalie's expression change, as I heard Maura's heels coming up behind me; I tried not to let the grin I was feeling out as I prepared to dump her in it.

"That's a shame Chief, after all everyone's been looking forward to seeing you and Sharon join us. Maybe with you there we might do a bit better tonight…" I smiled as I stuck the knife in. "Besides, you need a night off just like the rest of us" Natalie nodded.

"Of course you do, we'd be very disappointed if you couldn't make it, wouldn't we Maura?"

"Indeed we would Natalie, in fact Chief, I believe it was you who told me over lunch on Tuesday how much you were looking forward to it" I took in the expression on Brenda's face as she realised she was trapped between both blondes before I nodded once and beat a hasty retreat. Glancing over my shoulder I caught her narrowed eyes looking after me, before I laughed out loud. She didn't stand a chance against those two, trivia was on for tonight.


	21. Chapter 21

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**21 O'Malley's**

Jane's viewpoint

It was the last Friday night of the month and that meant Trivia Night at O'Malley's, our regular cop watering hole of choice. While we normally entered with just Nat, Ana, Maura and me, we'd managed to corral Brenda and Sharon in as well this time, the normal team size was six and we'd been missing out in some areas, hopefully having them there would cover some of our gaps, giving us a better chance at winning.

We registered, then went and grabbed our steaks and foil-wrapped potatoes to grill over the huge gas range like normal. The place was busy as usual with lots of cops unwinding, also as usual. That translated into a lot of single cops thinking they were god's gift to women, especially beautiful women. More than a few had buzzed around, attracted by the sight of Maura, Natalie and Ana, though they'd mostly been sent on their way with a smile and a laugh. A few however were being unpleasantly persistent, really not taking the hint and rather than Brenda and Sharon having to get involved I'd decided to step in with one of the more persistent offenders.

"Hey, Officer..." He turned and looked me up and down and smiled, he must have liked what he'd seen.

"O'Connor, John O'Connor" I nodded.

"Can I give you a bit of advice John" Without waiting for his response I pressed on. "I know they all look nice..." I nodded at where Natalie, Maura and Brenda stood chatting to Chief Kelso while Ana and Sharon flipped steaks. "But none of them are interested in you" He frowned at me, his ego obviously affronted; you could hear it in his voice.

"What makes you say that?"

"They're all gay" That got me a disgusted eye roll.

"You gotta be kidding me, what a waste" With some effort I restrained myself.

"I wouldn't go that far. Besides, there's two other reasons you shouldn't bother them" He tilted his head to regard me.

"Like what?" I shrugged.

The first is that all of them are senior officers in the Department, either uniformed of civilian. All of them work with Pope, so annoying them with approaches that aren't welcome might be a career-limiting move" He looked skeptical.

"You're joking fight?" He saw my face. "Really?" I nodded.

"A deputy chief, a commander, a Bureau Special Agent plus two senior civilians" I smiled nicely. "I can see that might just go all sorts of wrong" He frowned, his eyes lingering a little too much on Nat and Maura.

"And the other reason?" I let some harshness creep into my voice, drawing his gaze back to me.

"Their partners are all right here, so hitting on them is going to get you tossed out on your ear" At his widened eyes I held up my hand, letting him see the ring.

"Aw no, not you too" I frowned and stepped a little closer.

"Excuse me?" He suddenly seemed to realise that I was taller than him, plus a lot pissed.

"Hey, I didn't mean anything, just an observation was all" I frowned harder and leaned a little closer as he unconsciously leaned back.

"Well 'John', maybe you might want to make your observations someplace else, someplace where I don't have to watch you eying up my fiancé, Capsice?" He was about to say something when I heard a silky alto inject itself into the conversation.

"Hi Jane, I just wanted to let you know your steak's ready, it's starting to overcook" It was Sharon, I turned slightly to see her standing there, one eyebrow lifting as she regarded O'Connor, before introducing herself. "Commander Raydor" I saw O'Connor's eyes widen slightly as he nodded and mumbled his name, before making quick excuses to head back to his friends at the bar. I smiled across at Sharon as her smile changed from her 'work' one to her far more relaxed and happy normal one.

"Thanks" She glanced at his retreating back.

"Some people just don't seem to be all that good at taking a hint, so I thought I might wander by before you had to get physical" I raised an eyebrow.

"Who said it would get physical?" Her chuckle was quick and low.

"Jane, if you'd been any more into his personal space you'd have been standing on him" She shrugged gently. "Ana was all for coming over here to back you up, but I convinced her that I might as well let my reputation work for me for a change"

"Thanks Sharon, I appreciate it" We shared a smile as we wandered back to the grill, while I chewed over what she'd said, about her reputation. It was sad, Sharon was dedicated, honest, compassionate and a damned good friend, it hurt to contemplate just how bad her reputation was with her fellow cops simply because she did her job without fear or favor. Her job was to help preserve the reputation of the force by weeding out the hot heads, the trigger happy and the brutal; we were better off without them, it just did her no favors with the rest of the force.

I was still thinking it over when I got back to the grill, seeing Ana smiling at me as she leaned my way.

"You looked like you were about to go a few rounds with your friend, I was all for joining in but Sharon took away my fun" I nodded and smiled.

"She took care of it with a lot less bloodshed" Ana shrugged as she checked the foil-wrapped potatoes.

"Where's the fun in that?" I took a sip of my beer and nodded.

"Point" We grabbed our dinner and settled in at our table, Nat had taken care of the registrations so we concentrated on enjoying the evening, just winding down from a busy week, not helped in my case by the whole Boston episode. I'd not really discussed all of it with anyone, mostly because I was kinda embarrassed by my brother being such a douche. Maura would have tried to see it from his perspective but I didn't want her to know just how much of a foul-mothed dick he'd been, so I sat on it and tried to put it behind me.

I'd have to tell someone though, maybe Ana, before one of our sparring session, that way I could talk to someone about it, then burn it out of my system with a full on sparring session, she was one of the few people I knew who I'd trust to spar with when I was in a foul mood, she was as good as I was, less reach and strength but she was faster than me, besides we knew each other's moves well enough that I doubt I'd be able to catch her out even if I tried.

Finishing dinner, Ana and I did a drink run to the bar, chatting with a few people she recognised, or who recognised her, before we settled in for the actual competition, just in time as it turned out. The MC, a guy with an outrageously fake Irish accent bounded in dressed in some weird Leprechaun outfit, introduced himself as Seamus O'Malley before he started running us through the standard rules which were pretty simple.

The night was the usual system they'd introduced a few months back. Five rounds of ten questions, one recent change had been you had to nominate one round as your 'Joker' round, worth double points. The five rounds were 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', 'People and Places', 'Sports' which was a perennial favourite, 'Television shows from the 70s' and 'The Academy Awards'. Kicking it around the group we discussed which would be our joker round and ended up selecting the Academy Awards, 'specially as we all liked our movies. We got ourselves set up with drinks all round and were ready to kick off.

We managed to pull things in quite well on the transport subject, though some of the questions were a bit esoteric. Such as the one asking which rail journey was started by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits? It turned out to be the Orient Express, which Sharon had travelled on when she was travelling in Europe after college.

Another was which car company still in existence was the first to build a working internal combustion engine car, the answer turned out to be Benz, the ancestor of today's Mercedes Benz, Maura got that one as she'd actually read all the brochures and manuals when she got her current car.

Another was what did the DC in DC-3 stand for? Brenda, Maura and Nat all agreed it was Douglas Commercial, which turned out to be right. I kinda thought the questions in this round weren't that hard and maybe we should have made that our double points round but then mentally shrugged; we'd done OK and still had the Joker up our sleeve.

In the end we scored eight out of ten, which put us in contention with everyone who hadn't made it their joker round, three teams had with one of them on eighteen points, we still had our Joker round in hand so we weren't out of contention yet.

The next round was people and places, which was all about connecting famous places with the people who had discovered or popularised them. Ones like the first European explorer to see Victoria Falls. I didn't even know where Victoria Falls was though several of the others knew it was in Africa. Maura was the one to tell us it was on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe and the explorer was David Livingston, the same Livingston immortalized in the famous quote 'Doctor Livingston I presume?' She also pointed out that quote was probably post-event revisionism, some writer making it up for the readers back home.

Another question was about who was the first person to reach the South Pole, Nat and Brenda thought it was an English guy named Scott, 'Scott of the Antarctic', but Ana was pretty sure it was a Norwegian explorer named Roald Amundsen. I'd looked at Maura but got a shake of the head, not even she knew everything. Eventually we ended up going with Scott, given the title, only to find out he'd got there second, a few weeks after Amundsen. He'd died on the way back from the pole, along with most of his expedition, in 1912. As Nat pointed out, he might have come second but he must have had the better publicist.

Some of the others were easier, like who was most famously associated with Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina; Maura, Brenda, Natalie and I were all in agreement that it was Orville and Wilbur Wright and they'd carried out their successful first flight there, another point to us.

Ana got us another point by remembering that Cetawayo was the king of the Zulu army which fought and lost at Rorke's Drift, a famous battle in Southern Africa. Turns out she'd studied the campaign at West Point as a cadet.

The final one of that round had us stumped though, six smart women and none of us had a clue as to who had spent most of his life carving Mount Rushmore, not even a guess, but it turned out to be Gutzon Borglum. In the end despite not answering that last one we'd scraped in with another eight points, which put us on sixteen, trailing the top teams but we'd still had our double point's round in hand. The top placed team after the first round had managed a shocker this round, only getting four points, so they were on 22 points, well off the pace.

Nat and Maura did the next drinks run, while I kept an eye on them, I didn't expect too much trouble in a bar full of cops but I could no more stop looking out for Maura than I could stop breathing. Ana naturally felt the same way as I saw her eyes follow them both to the bar and back. I could see others watching them make their way across the room, but most of the trivia comp regulars knew who they were and who they were with, I may not like them being eyed off, but as long as that was all I couldn't do too much about it.

Sports turned out to be as tricky as usual. Over the month's we'd been doing this comp I'd learned that you could expect six or seven sports questions about American sports with the rest being sport that weren't well known here in the states like soccer or Rugby Union or Hurling or Cricket. I'd actually started watching more international sports to get up to speed; to the point I now followed the fortunes of Manchester United and Real Madrid in soccer, Wales in Rugby Union, County Cork in Hurling, Australia in the Cricket plus plenty of other teams in a wide range of sports.

None of that meant that I'd misplaced my loyalty to the Sox and the Pat's though, I might be in LA but I was Boston born and bred. All of which meant the question about which city was the first to host winning World Series and Superbowl teams in the same year was a complete gimme, Boston in 2004 of course.

The usual Olympic Games question had us scratching our heads, which sport was a demonstration event at the 1988 Olympic Games and became an official medal event at the 2000 games? Brenda smiled at us after we'd beaten our heads against it for a bit, before pointing out that most demonstration sports were local sports and the 1988 Olympic Games had been held in Seoul. That led to a quick discussion about what was one of the only truly Korean sports, making Maura smile as she nodded and confirmed it was Taekwondo, another point to us.

The question about which horse had won the Grand National three times kinda stumped us, till Natalie piped up with Red Rum back in the 70s. It turned out she had an eye for quality thoroughbreds from growing up on a farm, in fact she still had a mare back on the Dearing family farm in Wyoming, as did Ana.

In total we pulled out eight questions again, missing two, one on Lacrosse and the final one on sailing, none of us knew how many countries had held the America's Cup. It turned out to be five: England, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland. Ana and Sharon thought the Spanish were in there too, but it turned out the Swiss had defended the cup sailing in Spain. It sounded weird but I didn't know squat about sailing.

That put us on 24 points, which wasn't bad; we were middle of the pack with those who hadn't already used their joker. The double point's thing kept things interesting because it meant a team could suddenly grab up to 20 points from a round, meaning the top teams would never be completely sure if they were in the clear.

The 'Television shows of the 70s' round turned out to be easier than we'd feared, questions like which show had starred Bob Crane in the title role were easy, most of us had Hogan's Heroes on the tip of our tongue. When it came to what role did Sebastian Cabot play in A Family Affair, Maura and Sharon both pegged it as the butler. Sharon remembered it from her childhood while Maura apparently dredged it up from that encyclopedia she keeps hidden between her ears.

None of us had a clue about which British show Reg Varney starred in as a bus driver; I mean who the hell was Reg Varney anyway? Fortunately Brenda guessed it as On the Busses; she'd seen it on television one wet weekend stuck in her hotel in some god-forsaken part of the north of England, to use her description.

We also, along with probably every cop in the place, knew what sort of car Starsky and Hutch drove, a Ford Grand Torino, or Grand Tomato as Brenda described it.

Keeping up the cop show theme, the next question was about another cop show, but remembering the two actors in Adam 12 was a damned sight harder, we got Kent McCord right but guessed Kevin Tighe who was actually in another show, Emergency, missing Martin Millner, with no half points awarded we ended up with a total of nine out of ten for the round. That put us on 33 out of a possible 40 but we were still in the running.

Brenda and Sharon did the drinks run while we waited for the next round to begin as Ana leaned forward.

"I'm glad Sharon and Brenda came, they look like they're having fun" I nodded, they did that. Natalie glanced over to where they were standing at the bar, then back to us.

"Good thing too, Pope's giving Brenda hell over the home invasion case, apparently Councilor Mori's leaning on the Mayor, whose leaning on Pope" She grimaced. "I got that from the Mayor's head media guy, apparently the Mayor needs Mori's vote on some upcoming issues so he's bending over backwards to keep Mori happy" I frowned.

"Let me guess, Mori knows it and is making the most of his leverage right?" Nat nodded.

"Yeah, there's nothing quite as dangerous as a city councillor with a bit of a sniff of power. Anyway, it means Brenda's under a pile of pressure from Pope" Maura frowned, no doubt already mentally editing her schedule for next week to spend a bit more time with both Brenda and Sharon. She nodded slowly.

"It is fortunate then that Alex and Olivia are visiting next week, that should be a very pleasant weekend for us all" There were nods all round, they were good company and both Sharon and Brenda liked them as much as we did. We had a relaxing, low-key weekend planned, something we all needed.

I smiled as Brenda and Sharon weaved their way back through the tables, each carrying several drinks, they were good people and I liked them a lot.

The final round was the big one for us, double points for the Academy Awards. It turned out to be a real bear, full of tough questions, enough so that after the first few I thought we'd made a mistake making it our joker round.

First question up was who made the longest speech in Academy Awards history; fortunately Sharon knew it was Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver, clocking in at over five minutes. I couldn't imagine standing up on stage talking for two minutes, let alone five. That was two points.

The second was which Director has won the most Oscars. I thought it might have been Spielberg while Nat thought it was Woody Allen. Turned out that while Allan won four Oscars, only one was for directing. It was Ana who told us it was John Ford; she loved his movies and could even name several of his Oscar movies including The Grapes of Wrath and How Green was my Valley, which meant another two points to us.

Brenda loved music soundtracks so she got the next one; Alfred Newman had won nine Oscars for best score, who came second with five? She immediately picked John Williams, surprisingly even though they're some of his best known music none of the Star Wars movies won. Three from three was a good start.

The next question had everyone else stumped for a moment; which movie won every category of Academy Award it was nominated for? Fortunately though I love Tolkien even if I don't talk about it much, so I could confirm it was the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I remembered watching the awards night and cheering every time they won. That was back in the pre-Maura days when I lived on my own and didn't embarrass myself in front of her by cheering every win like the Sox hitting a home run. That made it four out of four.

The fifth question was apparently easy, which woman won the most Oscars, we started arguing different actresses, but Maura just smiled enigmatically and reached out for the scoring sheet, writing Edith Head on the line. I'd never heard of her and neither had anyone else but Maura explained that she was a movie costume designer and had won a pile of Oscars for her work. It figures that Maura would know all about costume designers, but either way I wasn't arguing, five out of five.

The next one had us all stumped though, which man won four Oscars in the same year. We argued round and round without coming to an answer, it turned out to be Walt Disney who won four in 1954 and he'd also won the most Oscars, 22 in all. That cost us two points and gave us five out of six.

Question seven was a tough one, who was the youngest actor to win an Oscar, winning it in her debut film? It turned out to be Tatum O'Neill in Paper Moon, fortunately Nat's mum loved the movie and so she'd been forced to watch it a couple of times growing up and remembered that she'd won an Oscar for it. It sounded a bit like a guess but we'd eventually agreed and it turned out to be right, getting a hugely relieved grin from Nat. That made us six out of seven.

Brenda, Maura and Nat were all certain the first posthumous Oscar went to actor Peter Finch for a movie called Network, Nat told us she remembered it because it was a movie about a TV journalist, Sharon because of the scene where he throws a window open and screams "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more" and Brenda because of the psychological manipulation of the character by his boss, all in the name of ratings. Three very different reasons but they were all valid, as was the answer. Seven out of eight and we were in with a chance.

The next one had us grasping, we had to name two out of three movies that had won the top five awards for best picture, director, actor, actress, and screenplay. We finally agreed that one of them was One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, but the other two had us stumped. We tossed titles around before Maura suggested Silence of the Lambs. Brenda and Ana immediately jumped on the bandwagon for that one, given their backgrounds as interrogator and Bureau agent I could see why. Sharon wasn't sure, Nat was skeptical and I didn't have a clue, but in the absence of any better suggestion we mentally crossed our fingers and put that down on the sheet. Turns out they were right, together with another movie I'd never heard of called It Happened One Night. That scraped us in with eight out of nine and we were all pretty excited, we really felt like we were a really good chance.

The final question was one that sent a chill up my spine as soon as everyone at the table turned to look at me. Name six sports movies that have taken home an Oscar in any category. It wasn't helped when Nat pushed the pen and answer sheet towards me either. Thanks Nat, no pressure, none at all.

Some were easy. Rocky and The Fighter and Raging Bull were easy gets. Maura contributed Chariots of Fire about Olympic runners while Sharon reminded me that Million Dollar Baby was about a boxer and had won, so that made five. Ana added Jerry Maguire, where Tom Cruise was a footballer's agent. It seemed a long shot but for lack of anything else it got added, leaving us grasping for another one. I had a feeling that the baseball epic Field of Dreams had won and was about to put it down when I had a second thought. I knew some movie with baseball had to have won an Oscar, but was it Field of Dreams or something else?

None of the others were sure, pushing the pressure back on me, I was about to give up and go with Field of Dreams when Brenda asked me who they would have made a movie about, Babe Ruth? The others started adding new names, names like Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays and Mikey Mantle when I suddenly smiled, holding up my hand.

"Who was the greatest player ever, even though he played for the Yankee's?" It was Ana who got it, nodding as she spoke, keeping her voice down.

"The Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig" I nodded.

"Exactly, I remember they made a movie about him. Can anyone remember what it was called?" There was silence for a moment, before Brenda looked up.

"Yankee's something, he played for them" I nodded as Maura leaned forward.

"Jane, can you remember who played him in the movie?" I chewed my lip for a moment as I heard the O'Malley character telling us to finish up. Ignoring him for the time being I wracked my brain, before I remembered the speech he'd made on retirement, the one about being the luckiest man in the world. I could hear it in my head, in the voice of…

"Gary Cooper! It was Gary Cooper" There was a quick round of glances as I nodded. "Gary Cooper, in Pride of the Yankee's" Nat quickly grabbed the score sheet and wrote out our answer as Seamus O'Malley's assistant came by to collect it, finishing it off just as she reached our table, taking it with a smile. There was a quick round of congratulations as we were handed another team's score sheet, before we ticked off their answers as they were read out. This team hadn't done so well, only getting six answers, while we were certain we'd got nine answers right, worth eighteen points in total. That should put us on 51 points out of a possible 60, which we guessed had us up there with the leaders.

All the score sheets were handed in and we waited as the leprechaun kept the night going while his people tallied up the scores; I was surprised to see almost no one leaving, I didn't realise so many people were invested in seeing someone beat the team of bankers, apparently they'd ruled the roost for too long and the cops who made up the majority of the teams were rooting for someone to knock them off their perch.

Finally Seamus or whatever his name really was started reading out the scores from low to high, letting the tension rack up as he climbed to the last two. The LAPD's IT geek team came in fourth on 47, teachers from a local high school snuck in and beat them by a point, leaving us and the bankers left and everyone was watching us both. I could see other cops nodding and lifting glasses our way in 'good luck' gestures as he drew it out.

"And finally, we have the two remaining teams, reigning champions the Wall Street Wannabe's and the challengers, the… L.O.L.A.L.E." He spelled it out and then looked out over the room. "What the hell does that mean?" Natalie looked his way and raised her voice.

"Ladies of Los Angeles Law Enforcement" He looked our way and you could see him taking us all in.

"You're all cops?" He laughed. "Which TV show?" I didn't like his insinuation but before anyone could speak a voice called out from another table full of cops.

"They're real cops, you dumbass" There was a scattered chorus of cheers at his words, Seamus suddenly realising he might have put his foot in it in front of a room full of cops as he rapidly started backpedalling.

"Wow, the last cop who gave me a ticket looked nothing like you guys" He looked around the room and forced a smile. "Anyway, I have the final points total here and on 51 points, we have the beautiful women of Los Angeles law enforcement" He sketched a bow in our direction, raising a cheer from all the cops around the pub.

"Our perennial champions, the Wall Street Wannabe's had a great night, as always" I could hear the glum muttering start around the room, as people anticipated the bad news. "But not quite good enough, scoring 50 points and making our lovely ladies the winners!" We looked around at each other as the room erupted in cheers, it slowly sank in, we'd done it. Next second I was being hugged by an excited Maura who was almost bouncing up and down, before a kiss settled us both down. I looked up to see the others celebrating the same way, before we started exchanging hugs back and forward between us.

Next second there was a gentle slap on the back as a patrol officer I didn't recognise congratulated me, then another officer, a motorcycle cop from a regular trivia night team was shaking my hand, in seconds we were engulfed ina sea of cops all congratulating us, it didn't escape me that Sharon was being congratulated just as much as the rest of us, taking in her slightly bemused smile with an even wider smile of my own.

Finally it calmed down a bit and we were called up to the front of the room to receive our prize, a $150 food and drink voucher. There were even more cheers from the room as we made our way through the tables before the Wall Street Wannabe's, the team of bankers, all stood up as we moved past their table. They all nodded and one of them held his hand out, shaking each of us in turn as they congratulated us on the win.

"Hope you'll be back next month, we'd like to win our title back again" We smiled and laughed as Nat promised him we'd be back, rain, hail or shine. They nodded and sat down as we made our way up to receive our voucher, before we got another round of applause from everyone there, even the cops at the bar who hadn't been in the competition.

Finally we managed to wrap up and made our way towards the exit and outside, collecting the last of the well wishes before escaping into the cool air outside. I looked round at everyone, seeing everyone doing the same. Nat snuggled up to Ana and smiled around at us before looking over at where Brenda and Sharon were standing there, holding hands.

"Wasn't that worth coming out on a Friday night then?" They exchanged a glance before Brenda nodded.

"It was fun, we both had fun" Sharon nodded in agreement.

"It was really nice" Ana looked round at us all then grinned.

"Then we're on again next month" I saw Brenda go to say something, probably something about being unable to commit to anything, but I got in first.

"This is our first win, you can't break up the team now, we're defending champs so we've got to hold onto our title" Sharon nodded slowly as Nat spoke.

"Yeah, you're our good luck charms, you can't pull out now" Maura smiled and piled in as well.

"They are indeed correct, without your help we would have not had enough points to win; obviously your participation is essential to the team's success" They exchanged another glance, nodding at each other before Sharon smiled.

"While we can't be certain we'll available, if we're free, we'll be here" There were smiles all round at her words as we wrapped up with hugs before we made our separate ways into the night.

Maura looked up at me from where she was happily tucked under my arm, her arm around my waist as we walked towards her Merc.

"I had fun Jane, I'm glad they were with us" I smiled down at her and nodded.

"Me too" She glanced up at me and smiled.

"You did very well tonight Jane, particularly on the sport-related questions" I nodded.

"Isn't that why you keep me around?" She pulled a small face, before it dissolved into a smile.

"Well, not just the only reason" Her smile turned a little wicked as she pulled me just a little closer. "I think you deserve a reward for being so good" I felt her words, delivered in that sultry teasing tone she uses on me when she's feeling a little naughty, set my nerves buzzing as I looked at her, appreciating my good fortune all over again.

"Oh really, and what sort of prize would that be?" Her voice slowed down a bit, teasingly slow.

"How about anything…you…want…" I looked down at her and smiled, though it was probably a little too feral and hungry, it made her eyes narrow though.

"I might have something in mind" She nodded slowly, playing a little with me.

"And what might that be?" I leaned in and gave her a kiss, pushing it and slipping my tongue in, getting an equally eager response. I finally pulled back, seeing her a little flushed and feeling a real sense of accomplishment in still being able to do that to her after being together for over a year.

"The sooner we get home the sooner you find out"

Our subsequent trip home was remarkably fast, even for Maura, but I wasn't in any mind to complain, not when I got my reward.


	22. Chapter 22

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**22 ****Awkward Interludes**

Brenda's viewpoint

The ride back to my place was nice; Sharon giving me a lift after my car had died in the parking garage again. This was the second time in as many months and I was kinda hoping this time I might get to swap the Crown Vic for something new, one of those nice new Caprice cruisers the LAPD was bringing into service looked good. Almost anything had to be better than the old Crown Victoria's we used; they drove like tanks and rode the same way.

Mind you, I was toying with getting a personal car too. On one hand I'd been really impressed with Sharon's BMW convertible, plus Natalie's old MGB was a cute ride, even if it felt a little small. I couldn't afford a Mercedes like Maura but something smaller would be good. I hadn't ever really contemplated a personal car here in LA before; I'd had the work car and had been so wrapped up in my job that I hadn't really considered the need for my own car. You couldn't take the cruisers out of LA though, so if Sharon and I were going to be getting away on weekends like we'd been talking about, then I needed another car.

On the other hand though, we had Sharon's BMW and maybe a second car was a waste, after all, I could see us moving in together sooner rather than later, which would kinda make the point moot. We'd chatted about it, but agreed we didn't want to be that 'U-Haul lesbian' cliché thing, I'd never heard the expression before but Sharon had and after having it explained to me I'd agreed that we'd take our time before making that kinda move.

So here I was on a Thursday night getting a drop off from her at my place, she had a pile of work to do, reviewing and updating the Department's code of conduct yet again, this time it was social media policy, guidelines for officers bloggin' and tweetin' about their jobs, there were worries about it being prejudicial to trials, so she'd been working on it with Natalie on and off for the last two weeks.

I'd offered to come over and 'help' but she'd just smirked and told me that if I'd come over she'd never get anything done, making me smile, she was probably right. Arriving at my place we sat in the car for a minute or two, just kissing, before I reluctantly got out, walking round to the driver's side and leaning in to kiss her goodbye.

I love so much about Sharon but her kisses are special, they're tender and soft and she gives herself to me completely in them, I could lose myself in her kisses for hours, they really were just for me and I cherished them. Finally I let her go, laughing at her promise to pick me up tomorrow and that we could spend the night together then. I'd even brought home my squad's performance management paperwork to get it out of the way so I could spend more time with Sharon and the girls over the weekend.

This weekend was going to be busy; Alex and Olivia were arriving tomorrow night for the weekend, so we were planning an afternoon by the pool at Maura's on Saturday, out for dinner and a movie that night, plus we'd have them all over for lunch at Sharon's on Sunday. It was a low key weekend but still something we were looking forward to, they were great company and good friends and we were both anticipating a fun weekend.

I stood there and watched her drive off, a silly smile on my face; I really was head over heels in love with her and couldn't be happier, my life had turned around so much in the last few months, I could barely believe it, all because of the love of a beautiful woman and our wonderful friends.

I walked into my condo block with a smile, which lasted right up till I opened the door to the foyer and found myself face to face with almost the last person I wanted to see here, my momma.

"Momma, what are you doing here" I took in the shocked expression on her face and realised that she must have seen Sharon and me together. '_Oh my god no_', I really didn't want to have to deal with this, not now. Not ever actually.

My stomach dropped as momma's face settled into an expression I recognised, she was determined to do something and woe betide anyone who got in her way, all my life people have been telling me I got my stubbornness from her and they were right.

"Brenda Leigh, I know that things haven't been right for a while and I came to set things right" I had a momentary flash about how I didn't want things to be her kind of right, not anymore, but wisely kept that thought to myself. "I certainly didn't expect to see that!" She made a vague wave towards the door and the driveway. "What in heaven's name is going on?"

I sighed, I didn't want to have this conversation and definitely not in the foyer of my building. I walked over and took her arm.

"C'mon momma, if were gonna talk we might as well do it someplace private" She pulled her arm from my grasp and went to pick up her suitcase, but I just frowned and picked it up, leading the way up to my place. Once inside I dropped my bag on the dining table, placed her suitcase on the floor next to it and sighed before heading over to the kitchen bench and starting the jug for some hot water, god knows I was going to need a coffee to deal with this.

I'd briefly considered a really big glass of merlot, but I needed to be sober to deal with a pissed off Willie Rae Johnson. I turned to see momma standing there watching me.

"Do you want a coffee momma, lord knows I do" She stood there, her lips pursed, finally shaking her head.

"No thank you, but do you have any tea?" From the questioning tone in her voice she probably didn't expect much but I just nodded, pulling open a drawer holding the big wooden box of Twining's teas inside, I'd bought it not long after Sharon started staying over, she'd said a herbal tea helped her to wind down after a hard day.

"We have an assortment, Earl Grey, Prince of Wales, chamomile; lemon and ginger; blackcurrant; ginseng and vanilla; peppermint; lemon twist or chamomile and spearmint. Which would you like?" I glanced up to see a look of surprise briefly pass over her.

"Chamomile and spearmint please" That would be momma, she might be still working on what she'd seen, but she would be polite about it, no matter what. As I waited for the water to boil, I turned to the bench, pulling out the coffee, honey and two cups and spooning the coffee into a cup. Finally running out of delaying tactics I spoke, still facing the bench.

"I didn't know you were coming, I wish you'd have rung, if I'd caught a case you could have been sitting there till heaven only knows how late" Her voice came from the same place behind me.

"I rang your office when my flight got in, but they told me you had gone home, so I came straight here. I was surprised you were going home so early" The jug boiling saved me from having to make an immediate reply. I poured out her tea and my coffee, adding honey to sweeten mine up, before finally turning round, she was still standing in the same spot. I walked over and handed her the tea before walking past towards the sofas.

"Might as well make yourself comfortable" She nodded and walked over to the other sofa, sitting facing me. I stared into my coffee cup for a moment, mulling what I was going to say, I never really wanted to be having this conversation, I suppose the only good thing was that daddy wasn't here, that would have been a complete catastrophe rather than simply the disaster I was facing now.

"I'm waiting Brenda Leigh" I looked up at her.

"What do you want to hear momma?" Her face got a 'what do you think' expression as I waited her out, before her lips quirked in annoyance and she spoke.

"An explanation for what I saw outside would be a good starting point" I sighed, might as well go in boots and all.

"I was kissing my girlfriend goodbye after she was kind enough to drop me home after my car broke down" She looked appalled.

"Your girlfriend?"

"I don't make it a habit to kiss random strangers, so yes that was my girlfriend" Momma sat forward.

"What in the world has gotten into you child, are you feverish?" I rolled my eyes. '_Only my momma..._'

"No I am not feverish, for god's sake momma, I'm almost fifty, not fifteen"

"Then what was that all about then?"

"I have a girlfriend, someone I care very deeply about and who cares for me, that kinda qualifies her to be my girlfriend"

"But what about Fritz, he's your husband"

"Soon to be ex-husband and what about him momma, he walked out on me"

"But you love him"

"Loved momma; past tense. He spent more than a year emotionally blackmailing me into giving up my career, my life, my self-esteem, to be what he wanted; he didn't give a damn what was happening to me, even though I was going through hell at work" I put my coffee down on the table a little hard; I still got angry about the subject of Fritz Howard.

"In fact I've since learned he was telling some people in the Bureau that all the shi… stuff I was going through at work was great because I'd get fired and I could be a stay at home housewife and mother"

"Well, children require a commitment Brenda Leigh; you need to be committed to them"

"That's just it momma, that was his commitment, not mine, he didn't care what I had to give up to make him happy, never the other way round. He wanted kids, I wanted to be doing something meaningful, something important, what I do is important, but that didn't mean a pinch of beans to him"

"But to take up with a woman, what were you thinking?" I unconsciously smiled.

"It was a surprise to me too momma, I'd never even considered it, but it kinda happened" Momma pursed her lips in disapproval.

"How did it 'kinda happen' Brenda, I'm struggling to understand you"

"I met some people at work, they were in relationships with other women, they were happy, normal, lovely people and their partners were too. They had happiness and love and a life together, it just so happened that the person they loved was a woman. It wasn't like they went out looking for it, it was just that the person they fell in love with was a woman"

"But Brenda, you've been married, you're not…"

"Gay? Homosexual?" I shrugged. "I prefer lesbian, but at the end of the day they're labels" Her expression veered between shocked and appalled.

"But we raised you right, what's happened to you?" I looked down into my coffee for a moment before looking up at her, speaking the plain and honest truth.

"I got happy momma. I know it's strange; it took me two marriages, both to the wrong men, to find someone to be happy with"

"But a woman, my god Brenda, what are you doing?" I frowned at her tone.

"Yeah, it wasn't what I expected, but she's wonderful, she loves me and I love her"

"Love her? Brenda Leigh, how can you love a woman, that's wrong" I sighed.

"Who gets to say it's wrong, the church? Let's be honest, they haven't exactly covered themselves in glory in recent decades, their moral authority to tell anyone what's right and wrong's kinda vanished" Momma's rapidly building head of moral indignation sort of lost steam when I started throwing her own thoughts back at her. She'd been shaken by some of the things that members of the church had been exposed doing in recent years.

"But…" I shrugged nonchalantly.

"It's legal throughout the country, in some places we can marry, in others it's called a civil ceremony, but it's not illegal anywhere" She looked aghast.

"Marriage…?" I held up my hand to stop her.

"I'm not planning on getting married again momma and neither is Sharon, we've both been down that path before" For a moment I was struck by an image and my breath caught, Sharon in a flowing white dress on a sunny beach somewhere with flowers in her hair, I'd never even considered it but she'd be a beautiful bride…

"Sharon? Are you talking 'bout Sharon Raydor?" Momma's voice brought me back to reality. '_Oops_'. Ah well, now the cat's outta the bag there's nothing for it now but to take the bull by the horns, never let it be said I couldn't mix metaphors with the best of them.

"As a matter of fact I am momma. Sharon is my girlfriend" Momma shook her head.

"But she… She's got children, she showed me the pictures last time I was out here, she can't be gay" I sighed.

"Momma, Sharon's been married and it didn't work out. She's had a girlfriend before and that didn't work out either, the jobs we do are hard on relationships" I laughed humourlessly. "I can attest to that"

"But if you've both been married, you can't be…" I snorted as I put my cup down on the coffee table.

"Yes we can momma. The technical term is bisexual, people who sleep with both men and women. Sharon's had a husband and a long term girlfriend before, I've had two husbands and now I have a girlfriend so I suppose you could call me bisexual too" I shrugged. "It is what it is" Momma looked like she was finally getting a handle on the situation, or so she thought.

"So this is just some silly fling thing till the right man comes along then?" I fell back in the seat, stunned. I took a deep breath and stamped down on the anger that had flashed through me, Sharon; a fling? The thought alone was stupid.

"Good God momma, of course not!" I shook my head like I could shake off the whole idiot notion.

"Then what is it Brenda Leigh, cause I'm surely confused trying to understand you" I took a breath to calm myself down.

"It's all really simple momma, I was lonely and alone after Fritz stomped out of here, I could have gone out and tried dating again, after all that's worked out so wonderfully well so far. Instead I ended up with a gorgeous girlfriend who understands what I do and doesn't try and make me something I'm not" I frowned for a moment, reflecting on what I'd said.

"I was wrong before, bisexual's really a term for people who sleep with men and woman equally. Sharon and I aren't looking to do that anymore, we're monogamous so I suppose lesbian fits" I nodded once. "That's what we are if you want to put a label on us"

"But how can you even do that with a woman?" I sat there and thought about what I was going to say for a moment, contemplating the right answer I could give to that question; I found myself desperately trying to hide a wicked smile as I had an evil thought.

"Well, it usually starts with us getting naked, in bed, or the shower, or the couch, or pretty much anywhere a little private. We start with kissing before moving down each other's…" Momma's voice was a shocked shout, her eyes wide.

"BRENDA LEIGH!" I tried to sound innocent, though I don't think I was too successful.

"Yes momma?"

"I don't want to know about those things"

"Well you did ask" She rolled her eyes at me.

"I didn't mean that. I meant how can you turn your back on everything, change like this?" I shrugged again.

"Easy momma, I'm really happy, for the first time in many years I am really, really happy"

"But a woman…" I tried another tack.

"Momma, look around, what do you see?" I waved my arm around the apartment and watched and waited as she looked around.

"I don't know Brenda, what am I looking for?" I smiled.

"Momma, every place I've ever lived in, the first thing you've said on visiting is that I should make more effort to keep my house clean" I gestured around the almost spotless apartment. "This alone should tell you something" Momma looked confused.

"Well Brenda Leigh, what are you trying to say?" I felt my smile widen.

"That I'm happy, for the first time in a very, very long time I'm really, really happy. Sharon makes me happy; with her I don't have to hide who I am and just being with her makes me want to be a better person. That's a whole hell of a lot more than Fritz or that ass Dave ever did" Momma just sat there, looking at me, obviously trying to take it all in. I stretched, I was tired and I needed to get out of my work clothes.

"I'm going to get changed momma, I'll put your bag in the other bedroom" I stood up and grabbed her bag, walking down the hall and putting her bag on the bed. There was nothing particularly incriminating in this room at least, though I couldn't say the same for the bathroom or my bedroom.

I dashed into the bathroom and grabbed the Pipedream fingertip vibrator sitting on the shelf in the shower where we'd left it the other morning. Having a quick look around, there were some of Sharon's cosmetics and cleansers and shampoos and the like, but nothing else out of the ordinary or too incriminating. I did a quick look round the bedroom, but the rest of the toys were in the bottom drawer of the bedside table, so I dumped the Pipedream in there with the rest and checked under the bed and elsewhere. There were some perfumes and stuff on the dresser but the only real evidence was a double picture frame on the bedside table, I picked it up and looked at it, a smile breaking out.

One shot was of the two of us standing together taken at the LAPD Ball a few months back, me in that gorgeous blue sheath and Sharon in that amazing Versace chocolate brown gown; the second was the two of us out at Blush with the girls about a month later. Alex and Olivia had been visiting that weekend and we'd all headed out to Blush for the club's little black dress night, Natalie had got us to pose for some shots but this one had been candid.

We were standing side by side glancing at each other out of the corners of our eyes and the looks on our faces could only be described as happily mischievous. Sharon had just leaned in and told me what she was going to do to me when she got me alone, to which I'd replied that if she was that eager, why wait? We'd actually left about twenty minutes later, with Sharon backing me up against the side of her BMW and feeling me up so very nicely as we made out before a very quick trip home to bed.

I loved that shot; it summed up all our relationship was in one image. If momma saw it, so what; it said everything about us, happy and playful and gentle and honest all in one shot.

Looking at it, I realised I needed to let Sharon know what was happening. Dashing back into the lounge room, I saw momma was in the kitchen rinsing her cup in the sink so I fished my phone out of my bag and headed back into my bedroom; speed dialing Sharon's cell, fortunately she picked up on the second ring

"Hi honey, miss me already?" There was smile in her voice, but the line was a bit hollow, she was probably still in the car and using the hands free.

"Hey sweetie, I had a visitor waiting for me when I got inside, my momma" There was a pause on the other end of the line so I finished the story. "She saw us Sharon" There was an underlying sound of panic in Sharon's normally silky alto.

"Oh god, are you ok Brenda?" I shrugged, even though she couldn't see it.

"Yeah, I suppose. I'm having 'The Talk' with her now"

"I'm turning the car round now; I'll be there soon as I can"

"No Sharon, don't" the call carried the surprise in Sharon's voice through clearly.

"Are you sure? You shouldn't have to go through this alone" I smiled, that was Sharon, there for me when I needed her.

"I think so. At least she's still here; she hasn't run screaming out into the streets or excommunicated me yet" Sharon's voice was full of her worry and concern.

"We're in this together honey; I think I need to be there for you, it's not fair that you have to go through this alone" My smile widened, all the reasons I loved Sharon wrapped up in one sentence.

"Sharon, I love you, you know that, for most things I'd want you with me, but this time, well I need to try and put this to rest once and for all and I can do that better when it's just the two of us here" I could hear the doubt in her voice.

"You sure about this, I can still come over"

"No, you get your work done and I'll try and talk momma off the ledge" I smiled. "I'll call you in a few hours and let you know how it went"

"I'll try but I don't know how productive I'll be when I'm worrying about you. You promise you'll call me no matter what Brenda, no matter how late"

"I promise I'll call, but try not to fret. I love you Sharon, you're the only thing that matters"

"The same goes for me too, I love you Brenda" There was a pause. "Good luck"

"Thanks, I hope I don't need it. Love you too." I ended the call and tossed the phone on the bed, then got changed into dark blue skinny jeans, a loose peach-coloured cashmere sweater that hung off one shoulder and black ballet flats, putting my hair up in a ponytail. The sweater was actually one of Sharon's, left from the last night she'd stayed here. It was soft and warm and lovely and I was wearing it because it carried her scent, it felt like she was here with me.

Running out of excuses to delay the inevitable I wandered back out into the lounge room to find momma looking at a picture on the bookcase. It was the one taken after Jane had proposed to Maura on New Year's Eve; Jane and Maura sitting in the centre, holding hands, that gorgeous ring on display, with Alex and Liv behind them, Nat and Ana to one side and Sharon and I on the other, all of us our with arms around each other, linking us all together as a tight knot of really happy people.

As I stood there, I could see momma chewing her bottom lip, staring at the picture for a long time, before finally setting it back and turning round, starting a bit when she saw me there leaning in the doorway. She frowned a little, taking in my clothes; they weren't my normal style, reflecting some of the things Sharon wore.

"Are you hungry momma? I doubt you ate on the plane and I'm about to fix some dinner" She nodded slowly.

"I suppose I am" I walked over to the kitchen as she followed, standing on the other side of the island and watching while I pulled out the makings of Apricot Chicken. I liked the taste and it was really easy to do. Looking up she was still standing there watching so I gestured to a stool.

"Might as well sit momma, this will take a little while" She nodded and moved to a stool, sitting there watching me move round the kitchen. Finally her curiosity got the better of her.

"What are you making Brenda Leigh?" I shrugged.

"Apricot Chicken, it's an Oriental dish but really nice" She nodded slowly, watching as I retrieved the leftover half of a barbeque chicken from the fridge and started shredding the meat.

"I didn't know you can cook exotic dishes" I shrugged.

"It's not that difficult momma, I learned from a friend of mine who's a really good cook. It's quick and easy and really filling" She nodded slowly before speaking, a bit hesitant.

"Was that… Sharon?" I shook my head, smiling slightly.

"No, Anastasia, the really pretty brunette on the left side of that picture you were looking at inside" I'd actually asked her and Maura for a couple of recipes that were simple enough so I could cook for Sharon. They'd each come up with a couple of what they called 'Brenda-proof' recipes, Apricot Chicken being one of them.

"That picture…" I looked up at her, raising an eyebrow but she seemed unable to complete the sentence.

"It was taken last New Year's Eve momma. I spent it with my friends at a party down in Santa Monica. It was a really good night"

"Are they all…?" I raised an eyebrow from where I was straining the apricot halves from their juice and setting both aside for later.

"Gay? Yes momma, they are" I paused to look her straight in the eye, our friends were really, really important to both Sharon and I. "Anastasia and her partner Natalie, they're the couple on the left; they work for the FBI and the LAPD. The back couple is Alex and Olivia; they're a New York District Attorney and NYPD detective, they're friends of Jane and Maura, the couple in the centre. Maura's the Medical Examiner for the LAPD and Jane is one of my detectives in Major Crimes" I smiled in memory of what had been a magical night.

"Jane had just proposed to Maura not long before that photo was taken, it was really lovely" Momma's lips had gone all pursed again, no doubt she disapproved. Mentally I shrugged; '_too bad_'.

"So these are the sort of people you're keeping company with now Brenda Leigh?" I frowned at her judgemental tone, before turning away to pull out a deep dish saucepan. Placing it on the stove top I looked back at her.

"Yes they are momma. We go round to their places and have lunch or dinner, they come round here or Sharon's for the same, we go out together for nights out, spend time together shopping or catching up or playing tennis or what not and generally doing the sort of things friends do" I looked up from where I was fishing out the electric rice maker. "Am I not supposed to have friend's momma?"

"These people, they've led you astray…" Setting the rice maker down on the bench I put my hands on my hips and stared at her.

"Oh for heaven's sake, I'm a grown woman momma; I'm old enough to make my own mistakes. I have twice, both times with your blessing as I recall" That particular barb sank in; I saw her blush at that. "You thought Dave was a 'wonderful man' as you put it" I used air quotes for emphasis. "As for Fritz, you thought he was 'perfect' so your batting record's no better than mine there" She shook her head, trying to deflect me.

"But they were men, maybe not the right men for you, but you're supposed to be with a man Brenda, not a woman, it's wrong" I felt my anger rise at her words, busying myself with fishing out the rice canister and using the measure inside to dole out enough rice for two people into the rice maker. Screwing the lid back down, along with my temper I looked across the bench at her.

"There's nothing wrong with what Sharon and I have. I love her and she loves me. She doesn't try and change me and I don't try and change her, we love each other the way we are"

"But it's wrong Brenda, can't you see that?" I stomped down on the first response that came to mind, I'd already decided getting into a flaming row wouldn't help either of us, so I was working on facts and logic. I turned to put the rice away and get out two French onion soup mix packets from the pantry. Turning back I frowned.

"Frankly no, I can't. I'm happy for the first time in years. Apparently you can't see that though. I'd kinda hoped you'd be happy that your daughter is happy, in love, keeping the sort of house you've always told me I should, spending time away from work being happy and generally doing all the sort of things you've been nagging me about for longer than I care to recall" I used a measuring jug to get several cups of water to go into the rice maker before putting the lid on and turning it on. Looking up I saw her looking back at me. "Momma, you keep telling me it's wrong. Exactly how is it wrong? It's not illegal; it's hardly immoral, not any more. Why, you tell me you watch Ellen and you've told me her wife Portia is beautiful so you obviously don't have a problem with lesbians. So what exactly is it that's so wrong with what I'm doing?" She frowned at me.

"But that's Hollywood Brenda, it's not real. You've been out here so long it's changed you. You wouldn't have even considered such a thing when you were living back home" I shrugged, stopping to thinking about it for a moment. Eventually I nodded at her once.

"Maybe, maybe not, if the situation was the same, if it was Sharon, I'd like to think I'd be open minded enough to consider it" I chewed my lip for a moment. "After all, we're all looking for someone to make us happy, someone to love and have love us back. If it had happened back east and it was someone like Sharon, I'd like to think I'd be honest and open enough to consider it" I looked up at momma and gave her a smile. "Otherwise I'd be missing out on someone who is everything I want and who makes me want to be a better person for them"

I waited a few seconds but she said nothing, so I turned to the stove and poured the juice from the jar of apricot halves and the French onion soup packet mixes together in the saucepan and stirred it together, making sure it was on a low heat.

Through it all momma sat there, watching me move around the kitchen. I don't know if it was because she didn't know what to say or she was still in shock that I was cooking and not setting fire to the kitchen. I wandered over to the fridge and got out the jug of cold water and poured out two glasses, sliding one in front of her before putting the jug back, then turning back to the chicken, slicing the larger chicken pieces into smaller fork-sized morsels before pausing to glance up at her.

"I'm still waiting momma, what is actually wrong with what I'm doing?" I was actually wondering if she expected I'd be panic stricken, acting like I'd been caught out doing something wrong. If so she was going to be very disappointed, I didn't feel Sharon and I had anything shameful to hide; we were both adults, we'd made an adult decision and we'd face the consequences of our actions together. Besides, how could something that made us both so happy be wrong? Finally momma looked up from where she'd been staring at my hands as I worked.

"It's like I don't know you at all" I shrugged.

"Nothing much has changed really. I'm still much the same person I was before" I tilted my head to regard her before lifting the cutting board to slide the shredded pieces of chicken into the simmering pot, then added the apricot halves and stirred it all into the mix. "I might dress a little better, be a little more handy round a kitchen, but underneath it all I'm still me, still your daughter"

"But to take up with a woman..." I turned round and got two dinner plates out of the cupboard and set them on the island to one side, ready for dishing up.

"Not just any woman momma, Sharon" I looked across at her. "When you met her you thought she was wonderful, you and daddy both" She shook her head.

"But that was when she was your friend Brenda Leigh, not your...whatever" Her hands fluttered as she faltered at the word. I grinned at her awkwardness.

"My lover momma, Sharon is my lover and I'm really fortunate to have her" I gave the apricot chicken another stir, then turned the heat down a little and put the lid on while we waited for the rice. "Sharon is smart, beautiful, caring, sexy, dedicated, you name it. She may not be perfect but she's pretty close to perfect for me" I went digging for some cutlery before looking at her again.

"In fact if she was a man you'd be overjoyed, someone whose making me a better person, taking care of me, making me happy, you'd be over the moon right 'bout now" Her pursed lips were back.

"But it's not a man is it Brenda Leigh?" I smiled.

"No she's not, but Sharon gives me everything I need and I work hard to make sure I'm everything she needs too"

"She can't give you children Brenda" Ah, now we start getting to the bottom of it all. I looked at her and gave her an eye roll straight out of the Sharon Raydor arsenal.

"Like that matters to me" Momma's voice was getting petulant. No doubt this was more about her getting grandkids than much else, or at least I hoped it was.

"It should matter, you're not getting any younger Brenda Leigh, you're leaving it awful late to find the right man and have children" Time to shut this line down.

"Who says I want to find the right man? Or have children with him? Maybe I just needed to find the right woman" She looked aghast so I ploughed on. "After all the stuff Fritz put me through, it may just have soured me on the whole kid's thing"

"But Brenda..." I wasn't standing for it.

"What momma? You've already got a grandchild from Bill, Charlie's a great kid" I shrugged. "Maybe you should be hassling Mark, give him some grief about settling down and starting a family" I felt my mouth twist in annoyance. "Lord knows I've tried marriage twice and it didn't work out, meanwhile he's still gallivanting round the world's ports on that ship of his. Maybe it's time he stepped up to the plate"

"It's different Brenda, he's not my daughter"

"No, but he is your son and my brother"

To be honest I now understood why Mark spent so much time away as Captain of his container ship, it meant he didn't have to put up with our parent's incessant nagging. I'd envied his ability to skip most family gatherings through simply being away at sea, I'd been too busy being the dutiful daughter to do the same, no matter how much I'd wanted to; mind you, after the fiasco that last Christmas had turned out to be, plus momma's attitude to Sharon, I could see myself playing the same card a lot more often in the future. Willie Rae's plaintive tone brought me back to her.

"Brenda honey, how could you do this, end up with a woman?" I shrugged, giving her the honest truth.

"It kinda grew out of our friendship. Sharon's my best friend and we really liked spending time together. We were spending time with our other friends and it helped me understand that what they had wasn't wrong, they had people they loved wholeheartedly and who loved them the same way. It didn't matter to them that the other person they loved was a woman, just that what they had was worth more than their gender or what other people might think" I was interrupted by the rice cooker timer going off.

"Dinner's coming right up" I spooned out some rice for each plate, then some apricot chicken, leaving the rest for seconds or maybe taking to work for tomorrow's lunch. Picking up both plates I walked over to the table and set them down, before coming back to get the forks, napkins and glasses, as momma sat there and watched me.

"C'mon momma, eat it while it's hot" I smiled as I used one of her usual expressions against her, watching her sit down and tentatively take a mouthful, sampling it. I tried to suppress a smile at the surprise on her face.

"This is really rather good Brenda Leigh" I let my smile show.

"As you can see the recipe's simple, but it's really tasty and filling. If you want I can write it out for you to try at home" I shrugged and tried for an innocent voice and expression as I continued. "Who knows, it's different from what you're used too but I think you and daddy will eventually grow to like it"

I got a piercing stare from momma at that none too subtle statement, but she left it alone as we ate in silence.


	23. Chapter 23

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**23 ****Snooping Around**

Willie Rae's viewpoint

I'd had a restless night's sleep; I was still having trouble believing what I'd seen, Brenda Leigh taking up with a woman, telling me she was happy, even cooking for heaven's sake, it was all too much to take in. I'd tried watching a little television while Brenda did some paperwork before taking myself off to bed, I needed some time to work through all the changes; she wasn't the woman I knew, the one I'd raised and known for almost five decades. It was like I didn't know her at all now.

Of course I was happy that she seemed to be better looking after herself, her apartment was neat and tidy, something that hadn't necessarily always been the case with Brenda; she had a bit more weight on, I'd always thought she'd been too thin, now though she seemed to be eating better and looked healthier, happier somehow.

I'd known she wasn't happy when she'd come home last Christmas; now I knew why, involved with a woman, with Sharon Raydor of all people. My daughter openly standing there and telling me she loved a woman, I never would have believed it if I hadn't heard it direct from her mouth. I lay awake for a long time, wondering where we had gone wrong, what we'd done to have her turn out gay. Bill and Mark hadn't turned out wrong, so I wondered what had happened.

Maybe it was the people out here in California; they surely weren't like the people back home, no doubt about it. I shook my head at all the weird celebrities and such out here, many of them were gay or something and their example must have helped influence Brenda's thinking, made her think what she was doing was right, which it most definitely was not.

I kept thinking of those women in the photo on the bookshelf, they were pretty and all, but they were all gay, maybe they had led her astray, I didn't know how, but something must have happened. I mean Brenda wasn't like that, she'd been married twice, they hadn't worked out, true, but they were men, the way it was supposed to be. Now she'd gotten involved with Sharon Raydor. I mean she'd seemed nice enough, back when I'd first met her, but that was back when Brenda and Fritz we're still married. Had she somehow contributed to Brenda's breakup, maybe wanting Brenda Leigh for herself?

I'd come out here to set things right, after all the problems we'd had at Christmas; now it was apparent that there were more serious things to be put to rights and I was going to make sure they were.

I thought about ringing Clay, but decided that if I was able to get things fixed here there was no need for him to know his little girl had been misbehaving so badly. I was still thinking over what I should do when I fell asleep.

This morning I'd had breakfast with Brenda Leigh where I'd resolutely tried to talk some sense into her, but she'd brushed off my concerns over eggs and bacon, telling me that she was happy and in love and that was that.

I noted she was dressed in a very business-looking grey skirt suit, all pinstripes and sharp tailoring, matched with very high-heeled black patent leather pumps and a matching black leather bag, not really her normal style at all. Where were her floral prints, she looked so lovely and feminine in them, just like a real lady; that suit made her look hard, like some corporate CEO or a lawyer, not like my Brenda at all. Even her hair was different, she'd pinned it up to one side, again it looked far too formal for the Brenda I'd raised, I liked it long and loose, like the little girl she'd always be to me.

No doubt this was all even more of Sharon Raydor's influence, I was sure of it and I didn't like it, not one bit. Why did she have to change so much? It was like she was someone else, not my daughter, I looked across at this woman who looked like my Brenda Leigh but wasn't, and asked her why she'd changed her style so much. She just laughed and confirmed what I'd feared; it was Sharon Raydor's doing.

Apparently both of them were supposed to be a 'role model' to female officers, it was up to her to 'set an example' and 'look the part' of the successful senior officer, that it made people take her more seriously in meetings and it didn't hurt that she looked good in them. I frowned at her words; it was obvious that woman was a bad influence, no doubt about it. I noticed that often when she mentioned Sharon, her hand would toy with a diamond pendant on a gold necklace, it turned out to have been Sharon's present to her last Christmas. It was actually quite lovely and obviously very expensive. When I asked her what she had got Sharon, she told me that her present had been a Dolce Vita watch, something she loved as much as Brenda loved the necklace. I'd frowned but kept my peace, but made a mental note to look up the watch, how much it was I wondered, was Sharon bleeding Brenda dry?

Finally Brenda left for work, leaving me to sit around for a while wondering what I was going to do. I didn't feel like going out, I had far more important things to consider right here and now. Getting Brenda to see that Sharon was a bad influence on her was going to be difficult, obviously she was under that woman's spell, wearing business clothes and sporting new hairstyles, jewellery that Sharon had bought her, she was all so different now.

I ended up wandering around her apartment, not really snooping, just curious about her life now. What I found left me confused. Brenda had always been disorganised around the home, when I'd raised it with her in the past Brenda Leigh had always told me that her work was her priority, now though not only was her apartment clean and tidy, the kitchen was well-stocked and the food in the fridge was fresh. I made myself another herbal tea, marvelling at the fact that not only was there a selection of them, but that they were there at all. Brenda wasn't a tea drinker, so these must be Sharon's influence too, that woman was absolutely everywhere in Brenda's life now it seemed.

With a cup of tea in my hand I'd continued wandering round the apartment, I'd seen that there were two separate brands of shampoo and conditioner in the shower when I'd been in there this morning, plus there was a second toothbrush in the holder, obviously Sharon '_visited_'' regularly. A check of the shelves in the mirror cabinet turned up two different sets of cosmetics, potions, cleansers, eye cream, razors, hygiene products and the like, obviously Brenda's and Sharon's.

That made me wonder what else of hers was here, but a look through the rest of the closets and cupboards turned up nothing that was especially likely to be hers, although I did find some clothes that were Brenda's size, but obviously new and very different.

There was a new pants suit, all black and lovely with an Armani label, but not something Brenda Leigh would normally wear, a range of work suits in amongst her usual floral skirts, again not her usual style, more Sharon's kind of clothes. The real surprise though was the gorgeous blue gown I found hanging in her closet in a bag, it was all satin and silk and fine lace, so soft and lovely to the touch, Brenda would look beatiful in it, I'd never seen the like, certainly not in Brenda's closet so I made a mental note to ask her about it tonight.

There was a collection of shoes in the bottom, all laid out in a shoe caddy, some I recognised from previous visits, some sandals and flats, two pairs of well worn runners, but there was a lot more I didn't recognise, obviously all new, a set of cork wedges, too high to be practical, plus way too many sets of impractical heels. How she could even walk in such ridiculously high and narrow heels I had no idea, they surely weren't the sort of thing respectable women wore, that's for sure. There were several sets of pumps in a couple of colours, reds, blacks, white, silver and creame, a terribly frivolous saphire blue pair with velvet and other frippery detail, two pairs of black strappy leather shoes that were far too high to comfortably walk in, plus others as well. Obviously that Raydor woman's influence, like so much else.

Looking round a bit further back in her closet I found two little black dresses on their hangers, both would be too short and definitely too tight for work and definitely something that wasn't a normal part of Brenda Leigh's wardrobe, no doubt more of that woman's doing. I was about to step back when I saw another dress, I'd thought it to be like the other's but the light reflected off it strangely, catching my eye. Reaching in I lifted the hangar off the rail, pulling the dress out free from the other clothes, allowing me to get a good look at it.

Oh my god. It was some stretchy rubbery material; it was black, way too short and tight for any decent woman to wear. It looked like the sort of thing some of those shameless female singers would wear, that Cyrus girl or maybe Britney or that dark girl Rianna, I couldn't believe my daughter would own such a thing, let alone wear it. I gritted my teeth for a moment and then shook my head as I put that...dress back where it had come from. It just confirmed everything I'd known, Sharon Raydor was a very bad influence on Brenda Leigh and I'd have to put a stop to it.

Wandering around Brenda's bedroom, I spotted a double photo frame on her bedside table, each photo featuring Brenda and Sharon so I sat on the bed and looked at it for a while. One picture showed Brenda Leigh in that beautiful blue dress, she really did look wonderful, the belle of the ball. Standing next to her was Sharon Raydor, wearing a rich brown off the shoulder dress with lots of ruffles, I had to admit she looked pretty as well, standing together they were both smiling at the camera; I knew that smile on my daughter's face, it was the one she wore when she was really happy, her whole face lit up like a Christmas tree.

The other photograph was of the two of them together again, this time Brenda Leigh was wearing one of those short, figure-hugging black dresses in the closet, they both were, dresses almost indecently tight but they had the figures to carry it off, again they both they looked happy though their expressions were full of trouble. They were standing with their arms around each other, smiling and glancing at each other, I'd seen that expression before too, usually when Brenda Leigh was about to get up to no good. I sat there on the bed for a while looking at those photo's, I had to admit she looked very happy in both of them; how could a woman make her so happy?

I poked around some more, opening her drawers one by one, the top one held panties and bra's, mostly sets, all very nice and new looking, checking the labels they were brands like La Perla and Agent Provocateur that I'd never heard of, all very feminie, if a little racy. The second drawer held more if the same, but if anything even skimpier and more shameless, there was even a corset with a built in garter belt, all black satin and lace that left more exposed than covered, plus a set of thigh-high stockings, all black silk with roses entwining up the back, pretty but not the sort of thing my Brenda Leigh would ever wear, these must be Sharon's though why they were in Brenda's drawers I didn't want to imagine. There was no way my daughter would ever wear anything so brazen. I was still coming to terms with what I was seeing when I opened the bottom drawer. Oh my dear lord.

The…things…I found in there were disgusting, some looked like a man's...thing, others looked like nothing I could imagine, I had no idea what they were for and no desire to find out. There were plastic things and metal things and things made of leather, scarves and handcuffs and blindfolds and other, sick things that made me want to be ill. I almost went to touch them, before quickly pulling my hand back. I had no idea where those nasty things had been and there was no way I was going to touch them.

Slamming the drawer shut I backed away, shocked at what I'd seen. Those things must have belonged to Sharon, surely Brenda wouldn't have them, it must be all Sharon's fault; all of it was her fault. Brenda had been happy before she had shown up, before she had corrupted my daughter, dragging her into her filthy, disgusting habits.

I finally went back into the lounge room and spent some time just looking at that photo of Brenda and her 'friends' again. She looked happy, even though I had a hard time understanding the occasion, a woman proposing to another woman? It just wasn't right. I might be legal and all but it wasn't right. Still though I had to admit that it was a lovely ring on the blonde in the middle's finger, she was really pretty, they all were, Brenda and the other blonde women in the picture were all beautiful, the brunettes were different, but they were all real pretty too. These were the people she was keeping company with; they'd made her this way.

I sat there for a while, trying to take it all in, trying to understand what had happened to my little girl. She may think she was in love, but it wasn't the right thing, she had to understand that, I had to make her see that.

Late in the morning Brenda rang, she said it was to see if I needed anything but really I think she was checking up on me; she told me that Sharon would be over for dinner tonight and that we'd be having something Italian. I was sure I wasn't ready to meet my daughter's lesbian 'girlfriend' but Brenda just ignored my objections, told me it was already arranged and that they would see me tonight, before hanging up. I could tell that woman was a bad influence on Brenda, my daughter wouldn't be so short with me otherwise, I was her mother after all, it just wasn't right.

Speaking to Brenda reminded me and I decided to do some checking up on that watch Brenda had given Sharon last Christmas. I found a phone book and looked up the jeweller with the biggest ad, sure they could help me. Twenty minutes later I dropped the phone on its cradle, appalled at what I'd learned.

Without knowing the model number, I couldn't be sure, but Brenda had to have spent thousands, thousands of dollars on that watch. I sat back, stunned, I don't think Brenda had ever spent that sort of money on anything, not for herself and definitely not on anyone else.

That led me back to the closet where I wrote down the labels on the suit and the dress, before checking again, ringing around to get some idea of how much they cost. It took almost an hour, plus some white lies about why I wanted the details, but I finally got to the bottom of it. I was shocked; Brenda had spent a fortune on those clothes, why Clay and I could have each bought a complete new wardrobe full of clothes for the price of that suit and dress.

Added to the information I had about the cost of the watch Brenda Leigh had bought that woman, I was obvious that she was living an extravagant lifestyle, nothing like how she'd been brought up, yet another change thanks to Sharon Raydor, they were all adding up.

It looked like that woman was using my daughter for her own ends, spending her money, getting her to buy stupidly expensive clothes, not to mention those…things I'd found. She was corrupting my beautiful girl and I wouldn't stand for it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to understand what had happened to my daughter and how I was going to set it right.


	24. Chapter 24

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**24 Disagreeable Dinner**

Willie Rae's viewpoint

Dinner didn't go well, at all; in fact it was a complete disaster.

Brenda arrived around six, resolutely ignoring my entreaties that what she was doing was wrong, telling me that Sharon was coming over so that I could see how happy she made her and how good they were together. My arguments that I didn't want to see any such thing were ignored as she went and got changed, emerging in a pair of form-hugging dark blue jeans, runners and a plain white t-shirt that if anything was a trifle too tight, not loose and comfortable like her usual, more of that woman's doing I was sure.

Sharon Raydor arrived about an hour later; obviously she'd gone home and changed, now wearing tailored jeans, slip-ons and a loose sweater, remarkably similar to what Brenda had worn last night, now I understood where she got that style from. She had brought the ingredients for a Fettuccini Carbonara but I wasn't really hungry, especially not after watching them together for a while.

They were all very close, little touches, bumping shoulders and hips as they moved round the kitchen, smiles and such, almost flirting if truth be told and I didn't like it, not one little bit at all.

I'd tried to be polite, calling her Captain Raydor, only to be corrected by Brenda, it was apparently Commander Raydor now but in Brenda's house it was Sharon. I'd nodded and kept my peace as they moved around the kitchen, trying to make small talk with me while dinner was prepared. I noticed Sharon was familiar with Brenda's kitchen, she knew where to go to find everything, the fact that everything was in its place was another surprise, Brenda normally wouldn't have owned things like a garlic press or a zester, let alone have put them in the right place, something that had surprised me when I'd found them earleir. Deciding to dig I looked at Sharon.

"It seems you're very familiar with my daughter's home Sharon. Do you visit often?" I saw a quick look pass between them, before Brenda gave a small shrug, getting a raised eyebrow in return.

"Yes Mrs Johnson, I stay over several times a week, when Brenda isn't staying at my house" I felt my lips thin; they were both behaving as if everything was normal, but it wasn't.

"At your house?" Brenda looked up and smiled.

"Sharon has a beautiful home momma, much nicer than the one I used to live in" I frowned, '_used to..._'

"You mean the one you bought with Fritz, Brenda Leigh?" She nodded offhandedly.

"Yeah, that one" My frown deepened at her cavalier attitude.

"Why aren't you still living there for heaven's sake Brenda? That's your home; you should live in your own home rather than staying at…" She cut me off.

"Too many memories momma, not particularly good ones either. Besides, this way I have someone in there renting it, helping to pay off the mortgage, at least until it's sold" I didn't understand her at all.

"Why on earth would you sell it?" Brenda turned to look at me.

"It'll have to be sold momma, as part of the divorce settlement, sure as hell Fritz isn't going to give it to me and I'm surely not going to give it to him" I was perplexed by the lack of interest in keeping the home she and Fritz had bought.

"Brenda, that's a little harsh, you bought that place together" She shrugged.

"Yep, and we'll sell it together, the last thing we need to do as a married couple before the divorce comes through. It can't come soon enough" I was taken aback at the disdain for her husband in Brenda's voice, was this more of Sharon Raydor's work? Speaking of which, she looked up at me from where she was checking on the cooking, looking right at me.

"As for Brenda staying at my place, well I love having her there, so it's no imposition I can assure you" I just nodded, not wanting to be seen condoning what they were doing.

"Besides momma, Sharon's place is over in Silver Lake, which is a really nice area; lots of artists and other creative people, there's lots of unusual shops there, clothes shops and curio stores and stuff. You should visit that part of LA, it's really interesting"

"Thank you Brenda Leigh, maybe another visit"

"What brought you out this time Mrs Johnson?" It was Sharon. "I understand this was an unexpected visit" I looked at her and tried to keep my voice neutral.

"I knew something was wrong and came to see what it was" Brenda looked up at me, an edge to her voice.

"What made you think something was wrong?" I turned to look at my daughter.

"You weren't yourself when you came home at Christmas Brenda Leigh, so I gave you some time to get better before I came to visit" My daughter leaned back against the bench, arms folded and looked across at me, a frown on her face.

"I wasn't myself momma, because you and daddy spent the entire time badgering me, trying to tell me that I should get back together with the man who left me. Given the circumstances, I consider myself totally justified in not being myself" I felt my lips tighten, before forcing myself to relax; I didn't see any benefit in getting into an argument, not yet anyway.

"We just want you to be happy dear" I saw a quick smile pass between them before Brenda looked back at me.

"Well as you can plainly see, I am, so you don't have to worry, Sharon's taking good care of me" The woman in question looked over from checking the pots and smiled at me.

"Which really is a pleasure, I don't mind in the slightest, besides Brenda helps look after me too" I raised an eyebrow at that. '_Oh really?_'

"Oh, exactly how does she do that?" Sharon Raydor smiled, glancing at Brenda.

"Worries about me, nags me to not work too late, tries to make sure we do fun things on the weekend, lots of little things that all add up to a lot" They shared a smile again as I sat there taking it all in.

"I see" Wanting to change the subject away from their activities together, I asked about their work days, hearing about their cases and some of the men working for Brenda. I sat there and wondered what their opinion of all this was, perhaps I might call them at work tomorrow and ask.

Dinner was quiet and the food was nice, Sharon Raydor was an excellent cook, leaving me wondering if some of that had rubbed off on Brenda, last night's dinner had been simple but tasty and certainly something that Brenda would never, ever have cooked previously.

After we'd finished I watched as Brenda excused herself to go to the bathroom, while Sharon busied herself loading the dishwasher. This gave me a chance to talk to her separately, which I'd wanted to do since Brenda had told me what was happening.

"So how long have you been involved with my daughter?" She straightened up and closed the door, starting the machine before looking at me with those very green eyes.

"Since not long after the LAPD Ball actually. As you're aware we'd been close friends for a lot longer, but we've only been together for about four months"

"So is this something casual for you?" Her jaw and eyes tightened.

"That's not how I see it. I love your daughter Mrs. Johnson, there's nothing casual about it" I shook my head at her words.

"I can't say I approve. I believe that Brenda would be better off with her husband" Sharon's jaw tightened even more before she spoke, her voice low and flat.

"For someone who should be concerned that Brenda is happy, you have a strange way of showing it" I felt a surge of anger, the nerve of the woman, who was she to judge me? My voice came out harsh and louder than I intended.

"I beg your pardon?" With effort I lowered my voice; I didn't want Brenda piling in on this too. "Perhaps you'd like to explain that statement" She raised one eyebrow, her voice cool and calm.

"Brenda is happy; I work very hard to make sure she is, her happiness is very, very important to me, something which her ex-husband neglected" I frowned.

"Brenda is still married" The annoying woman was calm as anything.

"At the moment, the sooner he's out of her life the better" Well, I never…this woman certainly was presumptuous.

"So you can replace him" She was unfazed, leaning back against the kitchen bench as I found myself wondering what it would take to get her to lose that cool.

"I already have, simply because I care about her more than anyone except my children" She shook her head slowly. "Agent Howard treated your daughter abominably over the last year before they seperated, trying to force her to quit her job and get pregnant. The fool completely misread Brenda, how much her job means to her, how important it is to her" She paused for a moment, obviously working out what to say before continuing. "Someone that stupid, that insensitive, didn't deserve her, further proved by the fact that he walked out on her".

"Something you no doubt encouraged. To have her all to yourself" Her eyes narrowed, making me wonder just what she'd be like angry, probably one of those quiet, frosty types.

"Look Mrs. Johnson, I get that you don't like me, no doubt you think I turned your daughter gay, probably just to spite you, but it was a complete surprise to both of us" She shrugged, though she wasn't fooling me, not one bit, this was her fault, it was all her fault.

"Brenda didn't know I was gay and I knew Brenda was straight. We were friends before their seperation and remained friends after. It was only in recent months that we both realised how much we meant to each other" I shook my head; this was my daughter we were talking about.

"My daughter isn't gay, she can't be" Sharon gave me a slightly cocky, self-assured smile.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you but I can assure you that for someone you insist can't be a lesbian Brenda does a first-class job of being an outstanding lover" I felt my jaw drop at the brazen audacity of the woman. It didn't faze her though as she kept speaking. "I've been married and had male and female partners, but no one makes me feel like Brenda does, when she loves she does so wholeheartedly. I've never wanted to make someone so happy in all my life, with the exception of my kids. She is someone very, very special, that's why I love her" I shook my head at her words, at just how wrong they were.

"Love? You can't love her, you're both women"

"Yes we are momma and yes we can" Brenda was there leaning in the doorway, looking at us both. I tried once more to get her to see that what she was doing was terribly, terribly wrong. I turned away from Sharon and tried to appeal directly to my daughter.

"Brenda Leigh, this...thing with this woman, it's a mistake, it's wrong and it's a sin. Can't you see it, you need to be with a man" I saw her expression change and harden; making me wonder if this was how she was at her job. Had being in the police hardened her, made her like this? I'd never wanted her to be a policewoman but she'd gone her own way, just like she'd always had.

"No it's not wrong and no I do not need to be with a man. Sharon makes me happy and I do everything I can to make her happy too. As I tried to explain it to you last night momma, Sharon is a wonderful person, I'm so lucky to have found my way to her, to love her and have that love returned. Why can't you accept that?" I looked at her, seeing someone who looked like my daughter but wasn't and shook my head.

"Because it's wrong Brenda, it's not natural" She shrugged her shoulders at me.

"What is natural then momma? You tell me" I thought for a moment, searching for the right words, to make her see sense.

"Being with a man, a good man, being married, having his children, raising a family. That's what" Brenda appeared unconcerned.

"I don't need to be with a man to be happy, I would have thought you could tell that from all the positive changes in my life an all, I am happy, ridiculously happy, Sharon makes me that way" They exchanged a meaning-laden glance and a smile appeared on her face before she continued. "As for children, well if Sharon and I wanted children, which by the way neither of us does, there are ways we could have them. But why would we want to, Sharon's already raised two great kids, one's a surgeon and the other's a lawyer. Heck, I doubt I could have done as well" I frowned. '_No children, no grandchildren?_'

"But it's not right" Brenda levered herself off the wall and stood there in the doorway, her hands on her hips as her jaw jutted forward angrily.

"I'll tell you what's not right, that my own mother is standing here in my kitchen wailing about how her daughter being happy is wrong, how the person I love whose making me so happy is not right, how she's making me unhappy right now because she won't accept the choices I've made in my life" I had to defend myself from her accusations, make her see she was wrong. Crossing my arms I stared back at her.

"That's not true; I've supported you in your choices, even when they're the wrong ones, like becoming a police officer" Her snort was completely unladylike.

"Yes you've supported my bad choices, like my first and second husbands, both of whom turned out to be dreadful mistakes, at the same time you've moaned about me being in the CIA and the police; 'you'll never meet a good man there'. Remember that momma?" I nodded quickly.

"Well you didn't"

"No I didn't, instead I met a good woman" Before I could speak she raised her hand, stopping me. "Remember that ass Dave, who I met after I left the CIA, the one you thought the world of. Turned out that wasn't exactly a wise move, as the subsequent divorce proved" I blushed, that man had turned out to a dreadful error, he'd fooled everyone until it was all too late. Still I had to try and make her see.

"Everyone makes mistakes Brenda Leigh" I got a tight, angry nod in return.

"And don't I know it? Let's talk Fritz Howard, another of those mistakes" I looked up at my daughter, she was wrong, Fritz loved her, I knew it, she must have known it as well, or at least until Sharon had got her claws into her.

"He loved you Brenda, he wanted you to be happy and to raise a family together" Brenda shook her head angrily.

"No momma, not together, he wanted me to raise his kids while he stayed at work, not realising that my job meant just as much to me as his did to him. He didn't care about that, it was all about him, me doing what he wanted, not the other way round" I tried to make her see some sense.

"We all have to make compromises..."

"Compromises!" Brenda's voice was an exasperated, angry hiss, her face contorted in anger, heaven only knows why, but it was enough to draw Sharon over to stand next to her, resting her hand on Brenda's arm as she took a deep breath through gritted teeth. I didn't hear what they whispered but Sharon must have calmed her because Brenda finally nodded at her, before looking up at me and speaking, her voice much quieter. "And what exactly did Fritz Howard compromise about? He was the one pushing for marriage, which I agreed to cause I wanted to make him happy. Then we'd no sooner gotten married when he started on me leaving my job and getting pregnant. He was the one cheering on that son of a bitch Goldman when he tried to ruin me, because that meant I'd lose my job and probably never get another job with the police anywhere. That way I'd become dependent on him and he could force me to become pregnant" I had to speak up, I knew Fritz had wanted to be a father, a good father.

"Well, he wanted children..." Brenda quickly cut me off.

"Exactly right, he wanted children. I wanted to be Chief Johnson, putting criminals behind bars and protecting the people of Los Angeles. He wanted children" I nodded, remembering Fritz's enthusiasm for having kids.

"It was important to him" Brenda's voice was rising again, her face redenning with anger.

"It surely was, so important in fact that he threw out my birth control pills and then fucked me without a condom. When I realised what he was doing I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't, not until he got what he wanted" I was shocked to the core at her words; Fritz hadn't seemed that sort of man at all. I realised that Sharon was standing next to Brenda, shock on her face, she obviously didn't know either, I took some comfort from that, obviously they weren't that close after all.

"Fritz couldn't have Brenda, he's not like that" My words if anything only made Brenda angrier, as Sharon's face turned immobile, looking between Brenda and I without visible emotion.

"How the fuck would you know what that bastard was like momma? He raped me, that's what it's called when someone forces you to have sex when you say no" I was shocked at her language, how dare she speak to me like that.

"Brenda Leigh Johnson! You mind your tongue!" The enraged scowl on her face was frightening; I'd never seen the like on her.

"No, I will not momma, I'm telling you what actually happened, the first time I've told anyone and all you're worried about is my language?" I tried to explain…

"But he was your husband, he couldn't have, it wouldn't be..."

"Rape, yes it would be" It was Sharon, her voice cold and clinical. "The law is quite clear. It wouldn't matter if they were married or not. If I forced myself on Brenda against her wishes that would be rape; the same applies within marriage" Brenda nodded, her hand seeking out Sharon's, her face drawn and angry; voice cold and cutting.

"He raped me momma, because he wanted kids and I didn't. Fortunately I didn't get pregnant, which was a blessing because there was no way I was going to carry his child after that. It saved me having to get an abortion" Oh my god, my daughter talking about having an abortion, I suddenly felt faint and put my hand out to the bench top for support. Who was this woman, she wasn't my daughter, I didn't know who or what she was anymore. Brenda was still talking as Sharon stood by her, holding her hand as Brenda continued venting.

"My marriage pretty much ended that night, I ended up in the other bedroom with the door locked and my gun under the pillow. The following morning we agreed to take some time living separate lives in the same house but instead Fritz apparently decided that I wasn't going to give him what he wanted, so a few days later he came back with movers during the day while I was at work and moved himself out, leaving me with the mortgage. He disappeared and left me there alone, he's living in DC now" I tried to say something, to reassure her, to make it better.

"Oh Brenda, I'm sure it's just a horrible misunderstanding, a mistake, he'll realise he's done the wrong thing by you and come back, he'll apologise and things will go back to the way they were" Brenda's face changed, darkening like a storm coming over the horizon, angry and dangerous.

"Momma, how can you be so goddamned stupid?" Her bitter words, harsh voice and angry stare were like a slap in the face. "He...raped…me... Get that into your head. He raped me to get what he wanted and when that didn't work, when I wouldn't give him what he wanted, he walked out" Brenda snorted again, half in anger, half exasperation.

"Now he's apparently fucking some young girl, a junior agent half my age back in DC last I heard; he's never coming back" She frowned. "Besides, who says I want things to go back to the way they were? Why would I want that son of a bitch back in my life when I have Sharon, she's everything he isn't, that's why I love her" Brenda looked at Sharon, her face softening at Brenda's words, before reaching out to Sharon and pulling her into a hug.

I stood there for a moment, watching my daughter seek solace in the arms of a woman. They stood there hugging for what must have been close to a minute as I tried to come to terms with the angry, vulgar-mouthed woman my beautiful daughter had turned into, as I wondered how I could get her to come home with me, away from Los Angeles and all the corruption here, corruption which had obviously changed my little girl. As I stood there I realised that Sharon was looking into Brenda's eyes and speaking.

"Honey, why didn't you ever tell me?" Brenda's voice was soft and low but I heard it clear enough.

"I was afraid to, that you'd be upset about it, or see me differently" Sharon's voice was shocked.

"Upset, god no! I just want to hunt him down and kill him for hurting you; besides, I love you, nothing's going to change that" Brenda smiled at Sharon's outburst, as they stared at each other, then Sharon leaned in and they kissed, not a peck on the cheek, but a full blown kiss, their arms around each other, hands in each other's hair, kissing like were in some sort of sick foreign film.

It was disgusting; it was making me feel ill. I hadn't raised my daughter to be a lesbian, to behave like this; to act so shamelessly, she was going against everything I'd taught her, everything the church taught her, it wasn't right. I had to speak up.

"What's happened to you Brenda Leigh, we didn't raise you to be like this" At my words Brenda pulled back, stepping apart, though I saw her hand find Sharon's once again.

"I grew up momma, I stopped worrying about what everyone else wants or might think and instead I listened to my heart and my head for a change. Both were telling me Sharon was the best decision I've ever made and they were right" I had to try, to make her see she was wrong, wrong about everything.

"I understand now that Fritz did the wrong thing, what he did was horrible, I know he wanted children but he shouldn't have done what he did. But this thing with this woman, it's wrong. Come with me Brenda, we can get you help, get you straightened out, so things can be right again" I was expecting some sort of reaction but I wasn't expecting the one I got; laughter, terrible, bitter mocking laughter. Finally she calmed down and spoke.

"Oh for god's sake momma, why won't you understand what I've been telling you all along? I don't need help, I sure as hell don't need to be straight, I'm happy being a lesbian if it means that I'm with Sharon and she's with me" She pulled Sharon in close and slid her arm around Sharon's waist. "I love her momma, you better get used to it because nothing's going to change" I felt tears appear in my eyes, who was this woman, what had happened to my beautiful little girl?

"Brenda, this thing, what you're doing, it's not right, it's a sin. You have to see it" I saw Brenda Leigh's jaw set, she wasn't listening to me, I could tell.

"No momma, it's you who has to see, see that I'm with the right person, here with Sharon, happy and in love" I felt my jaw set as I spoke.

"All I see is that my daughter's doing something sick with this woman. It's all her fault, you used to be normal, before her, she's corrupted you somehow" Sharon's face went white, but I wasn't prepared for the look on Brenda's face, she looked like I'd slapped her, her voice clipped and angry.

"Excuse me?!" I hurried on, using the silence to try and make my point.

"Before she came along you were the person we raised; now you're someone else. It's her fault, she's done this somehow, made you part of her disgusting ways" Brenda's hands were suddenly on her hips as she leaned forward, I could see the anger boiling within her.

"Disgusting... What the hell are you talking about momma?" I could tell this was getting out of hand but I had to make her see sense, that I was right.

"This depraved lifestyle you're in, taking up with this woman, the shameless clothes you wear, things you do to each other, it's wrong" Brenda crossed her arms, staring at me through narrowed eyes, her voice suddenly cold and remote.

"Whoa, slow down, what do you mean the things we do to each other?" Sharon's head had turned to me, her voice not just cold, instead frigid.

"I'd also like to know exactly what you mean by those words Mrs Johnson" I ignored her and spoke to my daughter.

"I saw things in your bedroom, those things in your drawer, you weren't like that before Brenda Leigh, is she making you do those things, is she forcing you into this somehow?" Sharon's face changed to an angry scowl while Brenda's went an alarming shade of red, her voice rising angrily to a near screech.

"You searched through my house? What the hell were you thinking momma, don't you have any sense of privacy, of decency?" Sharon Raydor looked at me coldly, her voice bitter and hostile.

"I would never force Brenda to do anything. I'm offended that you'd even suggest I'd do something like that" Ignoring her I continued speaking to Brenda, trying to make her see the sense of what I was saying.

"I'm your mother, I have to look out for you and it's a good thing I did given those dreadful things I found" I crossed my arms and scowled at them both. "Anyway, you're a fine one to talk about decency, given those things" Brenda's voice had lost none of its anger.

"Snoop around my life you mean? And all those toys in the bottom drawer? Sharon and I bought them together, the same as we use them together; they help give me a pretty fantastic sex life, like nothing I've ever experienced, all thanks to Sharon" I pounced on her words.

"So you admit that she's the one that's done this to you" Brenda was unabashed.

"Yes I do! Sharon has gone out of her way to make me happy and fulfilled and loved and I love her for it" I nodded, surely she must see what was happening.

"She's the one making you spend all your money on her, on her kind of clothes and on those disgusting things in your drawer" Before they could speak I pressed on. "She's the one who's dragged you into this depravity, how could you let her?" I felt tears appearing in my eyes, this was my little girl. "How could you?" Brenda however was unmoved.

"Simple momma, I keep telling you, I love Sharon and she loves me. As for the things we do, well they're all part of an amazing sex life" She looked across at Sharon and chuckled. "In fact the only regret I have is that I wasted all those years with him when I could have been in Sharon's bed years ago" Sharon smiled back at her as they turned their attention to each other, ignoring me, as I felt my anger flare.

"I think we were far too busy fighting back then Brenda Leigh, to be considering doing other things with our time" Brenda smiled even wider, completely ignoring my distress.

"Doesn't mean I don't regret it sweetie, I would have much rather been doing the hippy thing, making love, not war" I couldn't believe the things she was saying; they were making their depravity a joke.

"How can you joke about this, this thing?" Brenda turned back to look at me, one eyebrow arching.

"Really simple momma, I'm happy with the choices I've made. They're the right ones, after a lot of mistakes I've found the one person I love completely and who loves me the same way. If people don't like it, that's their problem not mine" I felt tears appearing in my eyes, this was my little girl, what had happened.

"Brenda, this is wrong, if you loved me you'd see this, see its wrong" She slowly shook her head.

"I do love you momma, but if you loved me then you'd be happy that I was happy, that I was in love. Obviously however that's not true, is it?" I felt her words drive right through me, could feel the tears coursing down my cheeks.

"It's like I don't know you anymore Brenda Leigh, you're not the girl I raised, you're not my daughter" I turned to look at that woman, the one who'd caused all this. "It's all your fault, my daughter was fine before you did this too her, made her do all these disgusting, depraved things, it's all your fault. I hate you" I saw a sad look cross her face, together with something I couldn't identify, before she turned to Brenda, her voice low.

"I'll leave Brenda; it's obvious my presence here is upsetting your mother and not helping things at all" Brenda shook her head and reached out, grabbing the other woman's hand and puling her close.

"No you will not Sharon, I want you here, this is your home as much as mine and there's no way you are being chased out of here by anyone, not even my mother" Brenda turned and faced me, her face cold, her voice clipped and angry.

"Momma, please go and pack your bags, I'm calling you a cab, it will take you to a hotel near LAX, There'll be a room waiting for you to stay overnight. You can change your flight back to Atlanta to the next available flight when you get there" I was stunned. She wouldn't do this to me.

"Brenda Leigh Johnson, you cannot be serious? I mean, you can't, I'm your mother" She nodded once.

"Yes you are which is why I'm paying for your cab fare and your hotel room tonight. If you were anyone else and insulted Sharon the way you have here tonight, I'd throw you out on the street" I was shocked, what was going on here?

"You can't do this to me, I am your mother" The set of her face was final.

"Yes I can and I will" She looked at me and I didn't recognise the voice or the person speaking those words. She looked like my daughter but she wouldn't, she couldn't treat me like this.

"I tried to tell you how much Sharon meant to me…means to me, I love her. Do you hear me momma? I love her. Until you learn to accept that basic fact and that Sharon and I will be together for as long as she is willing to have me, you are not welcome here in LA" I felt my jaw drop open, before finally gathering the wits to speak, my voice sounding plaintive even to my ears.

"You can't be serious Brenda Leigh?"

"Oh I'm serious alright. Until you learn to accept that Sharon is the one I love and treat her with the respect and dignity and love that she deserves, don't bother coming back"


	25. Chapter 25

**Merry Christmas to all, may the day be all you could wish for, filled with love, laughter and light**

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**25 The Pool Party**

Maura's viewpoint

The weather was lovely, warm with a slight breeze to take the edge off the heat. On days like this having a pool in the back yard was a blessing, one we made sure to make the most of, especially when entertaining. I had agreed with Jane that whatever house we ended up buying here in LA, it had to come with a swimming pool, it would also be perfect for children in the future as well.

Natalia and Anastasia had arrived around 11 to join us, catching up with Olivia and Alex as Jane and I passed out coffees; laughter and teasing filling the house and making me smile. This was what I had missed as a child, a house full of love and laughter and people. I'd had it with Jane's family in Boston and we were building it here in Los Angeles.

Handing out the coffee's I had no sooner sat down when Alex turned and looked at me, smiling excitedly.

"I'm so glad you're all coming to New York, I can't wait" I smiled at her enthusiasm, though I had to admjt to myself I was feeling something similar, it should be a very special occasion.

"We are both looking forward to it as well, with all of us there it should be a truly wonderful evening" Natalie grinned.

"I can't wait to see Liv, Jane and Ana in tuxes either, that's going to be something pretty special right there" Alex nodded.

"It's going to be great. Speaking of something special, we need to go shopping while we're out here, find something for each of us to wear" I nodded.

"Given our escorts will be wearing identical suits, we need to avoid similar styles and colours" They both nodded before Natalie shrugged.

"As if I need a reason to spend time shopping with you guys, it'll be fun" We made plans to go shopping on Rodeo Drive tomorrow morning, leaving the rest of today for lounging around, relaxing and having fun, something we all needed.

As the day wore on the heat became a little too uncomfortable, so Jane sent us all to get changed and join her in the pool. Several minutes later I emerged after having changed to check on the lunch, everything was prepared and waiting, we'd enjoy some pool frolics before sitting down to a casual lunch, lie around for a while then end up in the pool again.

We were planning to head out for a quiet dinner, followed by a movie later; everyone's recent schedules had been so hectic that Olivia and Alexandra's visit was to be a low-key, relaxed one, something we all needed. We'd catch up with Brenda and Sharon tomorrow; they'd been scheduled to join us today but Brenda had rung to tell me her mother had arrived unexpectedly on Thursday afternoon and that they were entertaining her for dinner last night. I had suggested that she bring her over, only to be told that her mother had taken the news of Sharon and Brenda's relationship very poorly. So poorly in fact that Brenda had rung this morning to explain last night had not gone at all well and she really didn't feel like being social today, instead inviting us over tomorrow for a late lunch.

I expected we would hear more about it tomorrow, but I hoped that the issue would not cause a rift such as the one created with my parents over Jane. I shook my head slowly, Jane and I were extremely happy together; I still could not comprehend why Constance and Richard would not and apparently could not accept our happiness.

Sighing at yet another of the many things I could not control, I finished checking that all was ready for lunch once we exited the pool before wandering out onto the pool deck. I chatted to Natalie, Ana and Jane as we discussed Brenda's mother's visit, before I noticed that Alex and Olivia seemed to be taking an inordinantly long time to get changed, prompting me to go looking for them.

As I walked towards the door of their bedroom I saw Olivia emerge in a deep blue one-piece swimsuit, one which emphasized her delectable curves and defined musculature; however she looked tense and upset as she drew the door closed behind her.

"Olivia, is something wrong?" She looked up to see me there and looked a little embarrassed.

"Ah, Maura…hmm, sorry, um Alex will be out in a while…yeah" I could tell that she was dissembling, something she almost never did.

"Whatever is the matter?" She looked back at the door to their bedroom, before sighing.

"Alex's upset" I frowned, she'd seemed fine earlier.

"Is it something we have done? Can I do anything?" She shook her head slowly.

"It's an old problem, she's not really listening to me, again" Her head came up as she looked me in the eye. "Maybe you and Nat can talk to her?" Her voice was slightly plaintive. I smiled.

"If we can help of course we will" She nodded. "What is the problem?" She grimaced.

"Alex has issues with people seeing her shooting scar" I frowned again, before nodding.

"Can you go and send Natalie in please" Olivia nodded and left as I stepped up to the door and knocked. I didn't hear anything so I gathered up my courage and opened the door to find Alex looking small and forlorn there on the bed, still in her tee and jeans, before she looked up in surprise.

"Oh, Maura… um, is everything ok?"

"That was going to be my question Alex, are you all right?" For a moment I thought she was going to try and deny it or attempt to deflect my question as I made my way to the bed and sat next to her, before Alex shook her head and spoke.

"I'm sorry, it's nothing, don't worry" '_A bit of both it seems_'. I reached out and took her hand in mine.

"Alex, please, tell me what is bothering you, let me help" She shook her head again, her voice soft and sadness visible in her eyes.

"There's nothing you can do, just let me be and I'll be ok"

"We are your friends Alex, we are here to help you, if you will let us" Alex refused to meet my eyes, something very unusual for her.

"I'm fine"

"That's not my diagnosis" We both looked up to see Natalie standing in the open doorway, looking lovely in her favourite white bikini, sunglasses pushed up to the top of her head, keeping her hair out of her face. "No one looks that miserable without a damned good reason" I could see Liv standing in the hallway behind her, uncertainty and concern writ large on her face before Natalie pushed the door shut and walked over to sit on Alex's other side. "C'mon Alex, talk to us, that's what we're here for" I caught Natalie's worried glance and spoke up.

"Alex, please let us help" She shook her head as I saw tears forming in the corner of her eyes, unconsciously I reached out and wrapped my arms around her, feeling Natalie's arms slide past mine as she did the same, feeling Alex's shakes and shudders as she cried.

We sat there with her, each whispering reassurances to her, before finally she calmed. Finally she sat back and we gave her some space.

"Al, what's bothering you, c'mon, spill it" Natalie smiled as I nodded, backing her up.

"Alex, you can tell us anything, we will never judge"

"It's stupid, it's nothing" We both shook our heads as we both went to speak, before breaking off. Natalie flashed a quick smile and made an 'after you' gesture, as I smiled at her courtesy and continued.

"If it has made you unhappy, then it is not 'nothing' as you put it. Something has upset you and we would like to help set it to right"

Over the next few minutes, in fits and starts, the truth emerged. The shooting that had nearly ended her life had left noticeable scarring across the front and back of her left shoulder, completely understandable given the nature of the trauma experienced.

Unfortunately for Alex, brought up by her unreasonably demanding parents to deliver nothing less than absolute perfection, in her eyes the scar was a horrible disfigurement. The attack had left Alex as badly scarred psychologically as physically; the resultant thrust into witness protection had ripped her from the company of friends who might have helped her come to accept the scarring as an unfortunate but minor consequence of the attack.

The situation hadn't been helped by her mother's horrified reaction upon first seeing it, telling her to keep the scar covered so that no one would see the 'hideous flaw'. Her father had also had difficulty dealing with it, their perfect child marred by imperfection.

I looked up as Alex haltingly spoke to see the raging anger in Natalie's eyes, anger I too was feeling; to treat your child so, it was unforgivable. My parents may have been distant as I grew up but they always accepted me, no matter how much I was different from other children, encouraging my interests and supporting my desire to learn.

"It doesn't bother Liv thank god; I couldn't handle it if she said anything about it. She just says its means I survived, nothing more. But I don't want anyone else to see it, I couldn't handle how they'd see it, the look, the pity in their eyes" Natalie looked at me then spoke, her voice soft.

"Alex honey, we'd never judge you, we're your friends and we'd never dare judge you. You're beautiful, everyone can see that. A scar can't possibly detract from the beauty of who you are" I nodded.

"A scar is simply a sign of trauma, a sign that you survived" I looked up to see Natalie's eyes narrow as she nodded to herself, obviously my words had struck a chord, before she stood and made her way to the door. Liv was still waiting there outside and I could hear their conversation, even though they kept their voices low.

"Liv, go tell Jane and Ana they have five minutes to both be in bikini's and back outside, Jane can get one of Maura's for Ana as she doesn't have one here. Tell them it's not a request and it's not negotiable, ok?" I saw Olivia's eyes widen at Natalie's unaccustomed no-nonsense, almost harsh tone before Natalie spoke again. "Now please Liv" Shutting the door she turned and walked back to the bed, returning to Alex's side as I spoke again.

"Alex, the fact that you are carrying a scar from an attempt on your life means nothing, not compared to the fact that you are here with us now. We love you scar and all; if that scar means that you survived to be here with us, then I welcome it" Natalie nodded then spoke, her voice quiet.

"Scars don't disfigure you Alex, they simply mean something bad happened and you got better. It's like an appendix scar or a C-section, just mileposts on your life's journey, showing what's happened. I've got them, Maura's got them, do you think less of us because of them?" Alex shook her head. I thought that she was agreeing with us, until she spoke.

"I was told that as a Cabot the only standard was perfection. If you couldn't be perfect then life wasn't worth living, you were a failure" Her hand lifted to her shoulder, then dropped. "This changed me, I failed and now I carry this with me as a permanent reminder" I felt anger rise up inside me, who had filled Alex with this foolishness? Who had made this strong, accomplished woman so doubt herself? I could see the same anger in Natalie's eyes, matching mine. With effort I turned my attention back to Alexandra as she continued.

"I was brought up to be perfect, to seek perfection, to achieve it, to always look perfect" Alex blinked tears away. "To look less than perfect was unacceptable to my parents and this means I'm flawed, something to hide away so that no one sees it, so no one knows" Natalie smiled gently.

"We know and we think you're perfect just the way you are" I nodded.

"Obviously Olivia knows and neither cares nor let it bother her" I ducked my head to look into her eyes. "Has Olivia ever, by word or deed, ever made you feel less than perfect, no matter what" Alex shook her head slowly, the words soft.

"No never, she couldn't" That got a soft snort from Natalie.

"That's good, otherwise I'd have to kill her and I kinda like Liv too much to want to do that" That quip drew a quiet, brittle laugh from Alex.

"I'd miss her if you did that and I don't want to have to prosecute my friend for murder" Natalie smiled.

"Good thing it's not important to us then" Alex's chin dropped to her chest as she looked down at her hands clenched in front of her.

"They say I'm ugly and that I've failed the family, that no one will want to marry me now and I won't have children to carry on the Cabot name" I felt my jaw drop as Natalie's eyes narrowed in blazing rage, her voice low and rippling with angry fury.

"Who said that?" Alex's voice was low and wan.

"My parents, when they saw it. They told me to never show anyone" Natalie's jaw clenched as I felt my own surge of shock and anger race through me, how in the name of everything could the parents of someone so lovely have done this to their child? I exchanged a worried glance with Natalie, I knew that we'd have to handle this extremely carefully with Jane and Ana, they were as protective of Alex as they were of Natalie and I, they were likely to take this as a very, very personal affront and might be willing to take matters into their own hands in seeking restitution.

I looked down to see Alex's hands wringing, without thought I reached out and enfolded one hand in mine, Natalie following my lead and taking Alex's other hand, holding it tightly, trying to convey our strength, our belief in her through to her. We sat there for many long minutes, just talking, endlessly explaining how her scar meant nothing to us, not compared to the beautiful person we were privileged to call our friend, we went over it again and again even though it felt like we were not achieving much.

Finally Natalie coaxed Alex out of the room to where Olivia waited and then led us out onto the pool deck to find Anastasia and Jane waiting for us wearing bikinis. Natalie led Alex over to where Anastasia was sitting on a recliner and asked her to stand, before carefully leading Alex onto her knees in front of Anastasia. With both of them settled she reached out and with a gentle touch Natalie traced over two pale scars on her lover's torso.

I hadn't really seen them up close before; each was an inch and a half long; my training and experience was telling me a wide, thick bladed knife, possibly with a serrated edge. The upper location would have seen a lung punctured, the lower wound would have hit the stomach and possibly the intestines, either could have been lethal, the fact she'd survived them both was a particularly fortunate miracle.

Natalie asked Alex to touch the scars but when she didn't move, took Alex's hand in her own and traced Alex's trembling fingers over them. When she spoke her voice was low and full of emotion, I could sense Olivia and Jane standing there silently watching as she spoke.

"These scars came from a sex slaver who stabbed her when Ana cornered him, but they don't detract one iota from her beauty" Natalie's hand dropped away, leaving Alex's fingers to gently trace the lower scar, before she spoke again, her voice low and soft. "In fact they make her even more beautiful in my eyes" There was silence as Alex slowly nodded, before Natalie looked up into Ana's eyes and spoke. "My beautiful Tsarina, what do these scars mean to you my love?" There was silence for a moment, then Anastasia spoke, equally low and soft.

"That I was stupid, that I put myself in danger and risked everything for a scumbag that wasn't worth it" She was silent for a moment before speaking again, her voice even softer. "It made me realise what was really important to me, the only important thing, Natalie; everything else was nothing compared to her" Natalie nodded slowly, still staring into Anastasia's eyes.

"And these scars are a sign she survived, to be here with me today, rather than a horrible symbol, they stand for the love we have, the pain we've overcome to be together" She paused and then looked across to Alex. "I love every single inch of her, how then could I not love these, they're a part of her, I love them too"

There was silence for a moment, as I saw a tear escape down Natalie's cheek, before she leaned in and kissed each scar, slowly, softly, reverently. Finally she leaned back and looked up into Ana's face, glittering blue eyes locking with tender grey ones, speaking to her as if the rest of us weren't really there, this was a moment for just them.

"These show me that Ana survived, that she could have died but didn't, that she lived, each day they tell me that she lived to be with me and that each day should be lived to the fullest, not regretted" I confess I felt a slight lump in my throat at her words, the love in them.

Natalie rose to her feet and leaned in, kissing Anastasia just as she had kissed her scars, slowly and reverently, full of love. Finally they broke apart and Natalie looked down and smiled, before taking Alex's hand and helping her rise to her feet gracefully, before turning and leading her the few steps to where Jane and I were standing, Natalie smiling softly at us both and passing Alex's hand to me as I smiled in return, understanding what I had to do, before slowly kneeling in front of Jane, gently tugging Alex down beside me. Settling there side by side, I reached out and softly ran my fingers over the scar in Jane's torso, feeling the first prickle of tears as I looked up into Jane's warm brown eyes, seeing the love and compassion there.

"Jane, my wonderful, darling Jane, what does this scar mean to you?" Her voice was soft but clear.

"That no one was going to harm you; that I'd rather die than let them; I'd do anything to make sure nothing happened to you, no matter the cost"

I nodded slowly, feeling an echo of the dreadful pain of that day, when she'd pulled Bobby Merino's gun to her torso and forced his finger onto the trigger, shooting them both rather than let him carry out his threat to shoot me where I stood to create a diversion for his escape.

I gently reached out and ghosted my fingers across her scar tissue, feeling it once again. I felt the tears trickling down my cheeks as I spoke, my voice calm despite the aching sadness those memories brought with them.

"Touch it Alex, see that it is simply a scar, one that it in no way detracts from Jane's beauty nor the overwhelming love I feel for her" Her trembling hand came up and ghosted over the scar as tears fell from her eyes. "To me, this scar and the scars on Jane's hands mean that Jane survived the worst that the world could throw at her and that she is still here with me. It shows that she is a fighter; that she will fight for me and fight to keep herself safe to come home to me"

I leant forward, feeling the same love and devotion that Natalie must have felt as I kissed Jane's scar gently, with something of the same reverence, feeling Jane's vibrant life under my hands and lips, reaffirming that she was here with me, living and loving and real.

Finally I stood, lifting Alex with me as I did, till we stood there together, before Jane leaned in and kissed me, soft and gentle, a promise of the love we were still to share.

Finally stepping back I looked to Alex, who was wiping at her eyes and smiled.

"Now do you see Alex? Scars do not detract from you, nor mar your perfection, they instead become part of that perfection, signifying success, that you survived to live and love"

Alex's hand reflexively lifted to her left shoulder, on top of the tee she wore. Before I could speak Natalie, who I hadn't realised was standing there by Alex's side, leant in and pulled the tee to one side, exposing the scar on her shoulder. Alex flinched and went to pull away and hide it but Jane's low, throaty voice stopped her.

"Please, don't hide from us Alex, we're your friends, we don't judge you"

The scar and its surrounds were noticeable, jarring against the alabaster skin. Looking at it I could see the work of the surgeons to save her life, given the location and the scale of the damage the scars, the spider web of lines, were not too bad for the work had been done with skill and care.

I leant in and looked Alex in the eye, capturing her deep blue eyes, seeing tears forming there.

"Alexandra Cabot, this scar is not ugly, it is a sign that you survived to live the life you deserve, with the one you dreamed of, that you survived in the face of hatred and fear to experience a love like no other"

Natalie was nodding, before leaning in and kissing Alex's scar gently, her lips ghosting across it, then lifting away to look into Alex's eyes, glittering blue eyes meeting tear-filled blue.

"Alex, someone sought to take you away from the ones who love you, but you survived. Today you're here with us, living and loved, while the scumbag who did that to you is rotting in jail. While they're looking forward to a life behind bars, you have the rest of your life with Liv to look forward to"

Jane smiled, moving to stand next to me as she slid her arm around my waist.

"Alex, when I first met you, I thought you were as pretty as Maura. You were wearing that slinky red dress in that store and you looked amazing. Nothing, nothing, I've seen since changes that opinion, you're still as pretty as Maura and that scar doesn't mean anything except you survived, still alive and still beautiful" I could see more tears falling down Alex's cheeks as Ana chuckled, moving to stand next to Natalie, pulling her close.

"Bit hard for me to top that, so I won't try. Anyone who sees that scar and thinks anything less of you is a fool. If they say anything, no matter who it us, tell me, or tell Jane or Liv and we'll kick their ass" She shrugged. "You're beautiful, we see it and at the end of the day we're family, we're all that matters" By now the tears were running freely down Alex's cheeks as Olivia gathered her into her arms, warm brown eyes staring into moist blue.

"Alex, you are more beautiful today than you were when I first met you" She leaned forward to place a gentle kiss to Alex's forehead, before leaning back to continue.

"That ambitious blonde bitch, full of piss and wind, the one who blew into SVU on her way to the DA's office and maybe the Governor's mansion, she was a pain in the ass but she was beautiful. You here today are far more beautiful than that woman could ever be" The smile she turned on Alex was pure undiluted love.

"That woman was beautiful but cold, the ice princess, or so we thought. Then we got to know you and we found that the person under the Armani armor was a person who cared as much as we did and that the cold shell was just that, a shell to protect the loving, caring, wonderful person inside. That's the Alex Cabot I fell in love with" Olivia's hands came up to rest on Alex's shoulder's as for a moment it was just the two of them.

"Not the Park Avenue Princess, not the kick-ass prosecutor, but you, the person you really are. That's the person I love, nothing changed that, not your time in Witsec, or your time in Africa and sure as hell no mark on your skin will ever change the way I love you" With that Liv leaned down and gently pressed her lips to the scar on her shoulder, her kiss obviously trying to convey everything she felt, as Alex stood there, her eyes squezed shut with tears coursing down her cheeks.

Finally Liv's head rose from Alex's shoulder, as Alex's eyes opened. They stared at each other for a moment, before they kissed, this one wasn't a kiss of passion or heat or desire, it was a tender kiss that spoke of everything Liv felt for Alex, words weren't needed, they were saying everything they needed to in that kiss.

Finally they stepped apart, still holding hands and smiling, really smiling in Alex's case, making me feel better. I doubted we had fixed everything here today, but just possibly we had started Alex on the road to healing.

Naturally it was Jane who broke the mood.

"You'd better go get changed Al, quickly" Alex looked at her and raised an eyebrow as she wiped the tears away.

"What's the hurry Jane?" She got a wicked grin in return.

"I really, really want to toss you in the pool and you're not really dressed for that right now, so go get changed, or get wet" Alex looked back at Liv who just shook her head, an expression that was pure merriment on her face.

"Might as well Angel, otherwise I'll toss you in right as you are, I've got no problems with you in a wet T-shirt" Her eyes roamed over Alex's breasts and she smiled a trifle wickedly. "In fact I might prefer it" With a laugh she lunged for Alex, getting a squeal as Alex ducked and ran into the house, Liv in close pursuit, laughter trailing behind them as Natalie smiled.

"We may not see them for a while, once Liv catches her" There were smiles all round before Ana spoke.

"I think they may have better things to do for a while" She shrugged. "Hope they don't forget lunch" Jane smiled.

"So what, it'll be totally worth it" I smiled as well, nodding, if it helped Alex, it would indeed be worth it.


	26. Chapter 26

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**26 Parental Problems**

Sharon's viewpoint

Last night had been rough, after summarily tossing her mother out into a cab and off to the hotel Brenda had been a mess, hardly surprising really. They'd previously been kind of close but her mother's inability to accept our relationship had strained that, I only hoped it hadn't broken things between them irrevocably.

We'd ended up in bed, where Brenda had cried herself to sleep on my shoulder, desperately wondering why Willie-Rae couldn't see how happy she was, how happy we were together. I'd tried to console her, but she'd been a miserable mess, something I could completely understand. My parents hadn't really understood my 'sexual reversal' as my father had called it, so they'd basically ignored the elephant in the room; they hadn't bothered to conceal their relief when my relationship with Brooke ended. Given their issues I hadn't bothered to tell them I still preferred women to men, nor that I was still sleeping with them.

As it was Saturday we'd slept in a bit, then while I'd made breakfast Brenda had confirmed that her mother had checked out of the LAX Radisson and that she was on a Delta flight back to Atlanta. The news that she was out of LA had seemed to make things a little easier for Brenda, we'd had a quiet breakfast before sharing a shower, Brenda losing herself in washing my hair, it was something she loved doing for me and I enjoyed her personal ministrations. Often we'd fool around but not this morning, Brenda was still a little too fragile.

We ended up having an intensely domestic day, we dropped our dry cleaning in, did some grocery shopping then headed home where we cleaned, changed bed linen, washed and vacuumed and spent the day doing simple things together. Brenda was obviously still a little shell-shocked from how badly things had worked out and I could see her anticipating the fall-out. By the early afternoon I'd caught her glancing at the clock regularly, no doubt working out when Willie-Rae would get home then expecting a call from her father. I'd resolved that if he called, I'd be the one to answer it, no sense letting Brenda take the full force of a parental tantrum if I could soften the blow.

We were both surprised however when no call came. Over a cup of herbal tea (for me) and coffee (for her) we'd discussed the possible reasons and ramifications, everything from Willie-Rae not telling him, heaven knows why though, through to Clay not really caring, though neither of us believed that for a moment. After talking round and round the issue till we were dizzy I'd eventually put my foot down and dragged her out to our local Indian restaurant for a filling meal of Rogan Josh, Butter Chicken and Lassi before we headed home to watch something mindless on cable.

It'd been good, we'd laughed at some silly Jennifer Anniston rom-com before watching a strange cop movie about police in a dystopian future; called Dredd, starring the doctor from the new Star Trek movies, it was a look into a particularly grim future.

We'd started out laughing about the lack of due process and procedures, but as the movie went on it became obvious that was part of the point, when society became close to ungovernable, you either had anarchy or you cracked down hard. In this case Mega City One as the place was called, had gone down the 'Judge, Jury, Executioner' path; ironic really as the cops were actually called Judges.

We'd sat on the sofa afterwards talking about how far removed from reality Dredd was, only to come to the somewhat uncomfortable realisation that if you strip away some of the veneer of civilisation then Mega City One's reality wasn't all that far-fetched. All you had to do was look at parts of Mexico where the cartels had run rampant to see that. Even here in LA there were places where the rule of law was a little lighter than it should be, where the gangs ran their own parallel system of 'justice' and 'punishment'.

The discussion was a little tense from Brenda's perspective; she was still touchy about the implications of police making life-or-death decisions following the Tyrell Baylor case. She'd made bad choices there that had nearly ended her career, would have seen her thrown in jail if Goldman had got his way.

Eventually we'd found ourselves cuddling on the sofa, the television off as we lay there in the dim light, feeling her warm body on top of me, surprising me again with her lightness, Brenda's personality was so much larger than life that it sometimes came as a surprise just how tiny she was, she'd put on a little weight since I'd started replacing her take-away addiction with proper food, partly due to her metabolism and partly due to her continuing gym and personal trainer sessions, with my encouragement she was spending more time with both and was replacing what little fat she'd been carrying with muscle, heavier but far more healthy and toned, I could feel the muscles that were developing under that lovely warm, soft skin as I held her close, her head on my shoulder.

We just lay there, just holding each other, we didn't need sex tonight; instead this was about comfort, so we talked about all sorts of meaningless things for over an hour before I felt her start to drift off. I roused her enough to head to bed, getting her to snuggle in close and rest her head on my shoulder as she wrapped herself around me. I could feel her soft warm breath on my neck, reminding me just how lucky I was to have her, she'd brought warmth and love and happiness into my life and despite all the dramas that came with them, I wouldn't change places with anyone.

The last thing I heard as I fell asleep was her voice, so soft it sounded like her breathing.

"Thank you m'love" I'm sure I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

We were up early Sunday, making our way back over to my place for a late lunch, Alex and Olivia were in town and we'd agreed they'd come over after doing some shopping. In a way I was sorry I'd missed that experience, I was sure that shopping with those three blondes would be lots of fun and I resolved to make sure I went with them the next time they were in town.

Working side by side we put together a healthy salad with plenty of marinated chicken breast for Jane, Liv and Ana in particular. All three of them spent a lot of time in the gym; building and maintaining that impressive muscle tone took a lot of effort. Mind you, I'm sure Alex, Maura and Natalie appreciated their efforts just as much as I appreciated Brenda's developing strength and stamina.

We got texts from them telling us they were on their way, eventually walking through the door just after one. For a few minutes we just caught up on what Liv and Alex had been up to back in New York, discussed their shopping expedition and generally socialised, before we ended up around the kitchen, amid offers to help with getting lunch ready.

Lunch was fun, full of happy conversation, teasing and laughter, especially once the talk turned to the Ball in New York they were going to, they were so looking forward to seeing Olivia, Ana and Jane in tuxedo's. For a moment I drifted off in a daydream, imagining a certain Deputy Chief in a fitted tuxedo, she'd be sexy as anything, only to notice Brenda scrutinizing me the same way; it didn't take much to realise she was picturing me in one, from the small smile on her lips she obviously found the image a pleasant one too.

It must have shown, as Alex immediately asked if we could come too. Ana and Nat could be Maura's guests and we could be hers, all part of a great night out. Brenda and I exchanged a glance and a silent conversation, we both wanted to go but regretfully we knew there was no way we'd be able to get away, Pope was antsy enough as it was when one of us was away, having both of us out of town, together with three other senior members of his team was definitely not going to happen, not without lots of notice, something we didn't have this time round.

The others were really disappointed as we explained our reasoning, but understold the reality. They did however extract our promise that we'd come next year, as to which we'd happily agreed long as we got plenty of notice. It gave us something to look forward to and we got a promise that they'd take lots of photos of the Ball and the girls in their tuxes.

After lunch we threw everything in the dishwasher and settled back in the lounge room, we didn't have as many lounges as Maura and Jane's place so we ended up with Alex sitting in Liv's lap next to Maura, while Jane was sitting on the floor with her back to the sofa, leaning up against Maura's legs, one hand wrapped around Maura's calf as the blonde toyed with the short hairs at the back of Jane's neck, occasionally Jane would lean back into her touch like a cat being stroked, while Brenda snuggled in close to my side as Natalie and Ana occupied the third couch.

The conversation flowed easily for a while before Willie Rae's visit came up at Natalie's question.

"Sorry you couldn't make it yesterday; I understand that things didn't go as well as they might have on Friday night?" Brenda grimaced.

"You could say that, yeah" Maura nodded.

"It would be a shock Brenda, your parents have known you a particular way all their life, suddenly you tell them that your personal preferences in lovers have changed 180 degrees, that alone is a significant change for them to absorb, it will take them a while to come round" There were a few nods as Brenda looked round their faces.

"Was that what happened with you? Did they eventually come round?" Natalie shrugged.

"We were lucky, on both sides" Brenda looked down to where our hands were together, fingers entwined, giving my hand a squeeze and then looking up.

"How did it go with you? Your parents I mean, was it hard an all?" Natalie smiled as she snuggled a little closer to Anastasia.

"Mom kind of freaked out a bit when she realized I'd actually brought my lover, not my friend home. She looked in on us late the first night we were there and saw the two of us asleep in the same bed, obviously naked" She and Ana shared a grin at the memory. "Dad was pretty cool about it, all things considered" She snickered. "Dad told her I could have done a lot worse and if she thought back to some of the guys I'd dated when I was younger, I had" Brenda looked skeptical.

"So she accepted it that easily?" Natalie shook her head.

"It took her a while to talk herself round to the idea; I mean it was a surprise to learn her oldest daughter was suddenly gay. Dad was a bit more accepting early on" Ana grinned and took up the story.

"Yeah, Nat's mom Christie cornered me one afternoon while Nat was off down in one of the barns with Peter, her dad. We were alone and she gave me the third degree, asked me why I thought I was good enough for her daughter" Olivia was the first one to respond, beating me to it.

"What'd you say?" Ana smiled and pulled Nat a bit closer.

"I told her I wasn't, that Natalie was the best thing to ever happen to me and that I'd spend every day for the rest of my life trying to be good enough for her" Ana shrugged gently as Nat gave her a quick hug. "I don't think she was expecting that level of honesty really" She smiled down at Nat, obviously thinking back. "I sorta got the full interrogation over the next hour, how many girlfriends I'd had, how many boyfriends, what I did that made Nat happy, how she made me happy, what my family felt about it, all the sort of things you'd expect really. She just wanted to be sure I'd be good for Nat" Natalie nodded enthusiastically.

"I had a smilar discussion with my dad. He was a bit less stressed about it, he just asked was I happy, was I sure I was doing the right thing, I told him I was certain of it and I'd never been happier, which was enough for him" Alex smiled.

"You're lucky, to have your parents accept you like that" Natalie shook her head.

"Oh I wasn't out of the woods by a long shot. Dad was fine, mom on the other hand... She arranged for Dad to take Ana off into town, so it was my turn for the third degree, I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition either" Olivia barked out a laugh.

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition" I picked up the reference immediately but she got several strange looks from the others, before she could speak I jumped in with a smile.

"It's a famous old Monty Python sketch" Liv grinned.

"I love those guys, mad as anything" She took in my fond smile. "And I'm not the only one I'd say" I smiled back.

"As long as you don't bring up the dead parrot" We both chuckled as the others looked at us with some bemusement. To get us back on track Jane looked across at Anastasia.

"What about your dad?" Ana smiled softly.

"Dad didn't know until I brought Natalie home. I was scared stiff, here I was bringing my girlfriend home to tell my dad that I'd found the woman of my dreams, someone I was going to love for the rest of my life. He had no inkling that I liked girls, so I was dropping it all onto him cold" Alex leaned forward; I could tell she was fascinated.

"How'd that go?"

"Surprisingly well actually, he was calm, listened to us both, then asked me to leave the room so he could talk to Nat" She smiled into her lover's eyes as Natalie smiled in return and took up the narrative.

"Yeah, he sat there after Ana left and calmly asked me a long series of questions, bout how I felt about her, how much I loved her, how the rest of our life would go, children, my family, you name it, he asked. Finally after about half an hour he called Ana back in and told us how lucky we both were to have found someone so special to love" Ana nodded enthusiastically.

"You can imagine the state I'd wound myself into, my dad interrogating my girlfriend, I'd damn near chewed my fingernails to the bone" She looked over at Nat. "Fortunately Nat had turned on the charm, he called me back in and gave us his complete blessing, told me he now had two daughters"

Brenda nodded slowly, I could see her comparing that response to Willie Rae's and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. She glanced at me with a grateful look before looking back at them.

"You were both very lucky" They unconsciously nodded in synchronization before Ana spoke.

"Yeah, we know we are" Natalie smiled.

"Very"

I felt Brenda stir beside me before she looked over at Alex and Liv, where Liv was sitting next to Maura, Alex snuggled comfortably in her lap.

"What about your parents?" Liv shrugged.

"My mom died before Alex and I became an acknowledged couple" She pulled a face. "She may have had some inkling that I was interested in Alex, on the few times we sat down and really talked in the last decade I probably talked more about her than anything else, but as far as she knew, I was straight as" She shrugged again. "At least I was until Alex came along" She turned and pressed her lips to Alex's shoulder, making Alex smile softly before Liv continued. "I mean most of us were, till the right person came along" She looked round the room, getting nods from Jane, Brenda and Natalie, before smiling. "It just took the right person" I felt Brenda's hand squeeze mine and turned my head to see her looking at me, her eyes soft and shining, before she leaned in, speaking softly to me.

"Good thing you were my right person then" I smiled, noticing that each of the other couples were equally involved with one another right now, probably expressing the same sentiments. I leaned forward, capturing Brenda's mouth in a sweet, soft kiss, before Brenda pushed forward, her tongue darting into mine as she let me feel some of the ardour we normally saved for bed. Anywhere else I might have been embarrassed, but not here with these people, our closest friends.

After a minute or two in which the room was quiet, we finally came up for air. I hopped up and wandered round, refreshing everyone's drinks as Ana set the ball rolling again, looking over at Alex and smiling.

"How'd it go with your parents?" Alex looked thoughtful for a moment.

"As well as can be expected, all things considered I suppose. I mean I'd realised at college that I was interested in girls, I'd had some experiences with guys but I'd attracted a lot of jocks and I was young and stupid enough to fall for the body, not the brain" She turned her head to look at Liv. "Nothings changed really" She smiled at Liv's yelp of protest, then giggled at the offended look on her detective's face, one that drew smiles around the room as she spoke up.

"I'll have you know I'm more than just a hot body, I have a brain too" Alex took on an aloof air.

"Well, it's not the brain I'm cuddled up to on those cold winter nights, though it does have its uses I'll admit, mostly for things like remembering my coffee order" She got a dark look from Liv, though we could all hear the teasing in their voices.

"So you only love me for my body, not my brain? I'll remember that counsellor, don't you worry about that"

"Perhaps not only your body, but I know which part I like the best" From Liv's narrowed eyes I could tell Alex would be paying for that comment later, a penalty I was sure they'd both enjoy. Looking up Alex smiled.

"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted…" She paused but Liv, perhaps wisely, said nothing. "…I realised my sexuality after I had a relationship with another girl who was studying law with me. She was gorgeous and had previously made it clear she was interested in me, I was on the rebound from yet another dumb, muscle-bound jock and she was there, offering sympathy and comfort" Alex smiled softly, it was obviously a good memory. "She basically seduced me and opened my eyes to what I'd been missing"

I finished refreshing everyone's drinks and sat back down, felling Brenda move in close again as I settled once more into the warmth I got from having her near. Alex too snuggled a little closer into Liv's embrace before continuing.

"I had something of an epiphany, after that I knew what I'd been missing and after a few more experiences basically accepted that I was gay. My parents weren't terribly amused, their plans had me marrying someone appropriate, someone whose family, wealth and connections would help me succeed in politics, getting me into the Mayor or Governor's jobs" She made a 'whatever' gesture. "That was their plan and I went along with it out of family loyalty, they tried to get me married off, even to the point of forcing me into an arranged engagement but in the end I realized their vision wasn't what I wanted. I'd met someone who didn't fit their plan but she'd stolen my heart and that was that" Liv leaned up to kiss her temple, making Alex smile before she continued. "I was sure that Liv didn't feel the same way about me, so I tried to move on, do what my family wanted, but it was never going to work. They tried to get me married off to produce heirs but I couldn't be with a guy and any of the women I slept with weren't Liv, so I was pretty sure I was going to be lonely for the rest of my life" She shared a smile and a meaning-laden look with Liv before looking round the room. "Fortunately one afternoon in New York we met Maura and Jane here and everything changed" There were smiles all-round the room before she continued. "My parents preferred not to discuss the matter, I was a dreadful disappointment to them in that regard" Liv snorted, a scowl on her face.

"Too stupid to see their daughter's happy, all they can see is what they wanted, not what you wanted" Alex nodded, her head on Liv's shoulder before she looked round at the rest of us.

"My parents wanted a son; they even had one of the traditional Cabot names selected, Alexander. Then they found out I was arriving and things went out the window" She half-shrugged. "My family is very traditional..."

"Hide bound and stubborn you mean" Liv interrupted, getting a fond smile from Alex; obviously it was a long-running thing for them.

"Well yes, that too, anyway, they decided that my gender shouldn't prevent me from fulfilling the Cabot destiny as they saw it. The right schools, the right degree, the right career, the right marriage to someone who could help my progress to a high political office, they knew exactly what they wanted"

"Jesus Alex, that sucks" It was Ana. "Whatever happened to following your heart and doing what you wanted to do?" Alex smiled at her, a little sadly.

"Not part of the Cabot family plan for world domination I'm afraid" Jane shook her head.

"I take it they don't approve of what's happened with you two?" Alex shook her head, blonde locks flowing over her shoulders.

"Not particularly. They tended to blame everything that's happened on Liv. According to them, if she hadn't been there when I did what was supposed to be a short, politically useful stint at SVU then my career wouldn't have got off track. If she hadn't been such a 'distraction' as they put it, I would have moved on to another role, if I hadn't been 'infatuated' with her; again their word, I would have found a nice, rich, politically and socially connected man to marry, If I hadn't fallen for her I wouldn't have ended up prosecuting Velez and getting shot, then pushed into witness protection" I'd been quiet, listening to her words but couldn't keep silent.

"It seems that in their minds Olivia is the personification of every disappointment they have about you. Every choice you've made, they blame Olivia, even though you're your own woman, making your own decisions. It hardly seems particularly honest on their part" Alex turned those piercing blue eyes on me and nodded.

"It wasn't. They had my life all planned out, when that plan won't off the rails it was easier to blame someone else rather than admit that life wasn't going to bend to accommodate their desires" Brenda stirred next to me.

"You don't have any siblings do you Alex?" I swallowed a smile; Brenda wasn't dumb; far too many people underestimated her thanks to the accent and the looks. Alex however was too smart, too used to reading people, to make that mistake.

"No, I was a difficult birth, after they had me they tried again, but the doctors told them that my mother couldn't have any more" Brenda nodded.

"So they loaded up all their hopes and dreams onto you..."

"Pretty much, I was their only hope. Needless to say I was a dreadful disappointment..."

"More fool them" It was Natalie; I'd wondered how long she was going to be able to stay silent. She was far too fiercely proud and protective of her friends to do so for long. "Their daughter is one of New York's most successful prosecutors, the UN can't sing your praises highly enough for the work you did in the Congo, other areas can't wait for you to leave SVU so they can get you working for them and the media describe you as one of New York's most feared prosecutors" She shook her head. "What the hell more do they want?" Alex's eyebrows rose.

"Where'd you hear all that?" Natalie shrugged.

"There's this nifty new thing called the internet…" At Alex's skeptical scowl she looked sheepish. "I called up someone I used to work with back in news in Seattle, Stephanie Church, I was with King 5, she was with our affiliate Kong 16, Steph's now an investigative journalist at WPIX in New York so I gave her a call and she gave me all the gossip" Alex gave her a hard look for a second, before nodding.

"I forgot you're a nosey reporter at heart" She got a quick grin from Natalie before Brenda spoke up.

"Will they ever come to terms with your being with Liv?" I could hear the unspoken question in Brenda's voice, she was hoping for something to give her hope with her own parents. Unfortunately Alex shook her head.

"My mother passed away not long after Liv and I got together last year while my father, who still disapproves of my 'lifestyle choices' as he puts it, he's in the cancer ward in Southampton Hospital, out on Long Island" I felt Brenda suddenly tense next to me, her hand clenching mine tightly.

"Oh god, I'm sorry Alex, I really am, I didn't mean to bring up anything like that, I'm so sorry" Alex smiled sadly and shrugged as Liv hugged her a little tighter.

"You weren't to know Brenda, besides, my parents choices were theirs, mine are mine alone and I know I've made the right one" There was a chorus of agreement around the room as Liv gently kissed Alex on the cheek then, when Alex turned to her, a deeper one on the lips. It went on for long enough that Jane eventually called them on it.

"Get a room you two!" Both Liv and Alex turned shit eating grins on Jane, who made a gagging sound. Before Jane could dig herself deeper Brenda bailed her out, calling across to her and Maura.

"What about your parents?"

Jane turned her head and exchanged a look with Maura, who nodded in a 'you first' gesture, and then turned back to us.

"My Ma's the meddling Italian momma from central casting, always trying to set me up with good Italian boys from nice families. I'd got tired of it a long time ago, I'd come to terms that the person I wanted was out of my reach, but I really didn't want anyone else, even though I couldn't have the person I loved" She shrugged as Maura leaned forward to lay her hand on Jane's shoulder, Jane unconsciously tilting her head to rest her cheek on Maura's fingers, obviously drawing comfort from the contact.

Glancing around the room I noticed each couple was very tactile. Natalie snuggled into Ana with the brunette's arm around her shoulders; Alex sitting happily in Liv's lap, not to mention Brenda was sitting curled up against me from shoulder to knee, our fingers entwined.

"Anyway, once Maura and I finally got a clue, I moved in later that week, which wasn't all that difficult as half my clothes were in Maura's spare room anyway. We'd discussed it and decided we'd break it to my Ma the following weekend, she was bound to find out as she was living in Maura's guest house out back of the main house" Jane barked out a laugh. "Ma rang me early on Saturday morning, not realising I was actually upstairs in Maura's bed, she'd called to tell me she'd arranged a date for me that night with the son of a friend of hers" Jane rolled her eyes as Maura chuckled at what was obviously a good memory.

"I told her I wasn't interested, at which point she asked me what was wrong with 'that nice Carlucci boy who's a dentist' and why wouldn't I give him a chance" She put it in air quotes. "I looked over at Maura, who was trying to drag me back into bed, thought '_what the hell_'' and told Ma that I preferred that nice Isles girl who was a doctor. Well you could have heard a pin drop at that, for all of five seconds" Jane chuckled, joined by most of us. "Then the phone erupted; how long this had been going on, why hadn't I told her, you name it" She shrugged. "I told her about a week and we were going to tell her that weekend, so I said we'd see her for dinner on Sunday night, until then we had better things to do and she should stay out of Maura's place for the rest of the day, unless she wanted to see a lot more than she really wanted" There was a rustle of laughter at that as both Jane and Maura wore matching grins.

"Honestly, once she got over the fact that I'd actually found someone without her 'help' she eventually calmed down" Jane shrugged. "It kinda helped that she already considered Maura like a daughter, she'd always wanted me to date a doctor and after 'someone' explained in way too much detail the various ways two women could provide her with grandkids, she settled down" Maura chuckled.

"Let us be honest Jane, it was either that or Angela was going to suggest that I use sperm from either Tommy or Frankie" She looked up at us and explained. "Jane's brothers" Jane pulled a dreadful face at her words.

"Eww Maura, that's just so wrong….I still have issues at the thought of anything from my brothers being inside you" Maura gazed fondly down at the back of Jane's head.

"It was just a suggestion, one which I was happy to head up at the pass" Jane's eyebrow lifted as she half-turned her head to look at Maura, patting her knee as she did.

"Off Maura, its head **off** at the pass" Maura nodded, you could almost see her storing that away in a filing system.

"Oh, thank you" I nodded, before looking over at Maura.

"So what about you Maura, how did your parents take the news?" Maura's smile faded as she leaned forward closer to Jane, I noticed that Jane reached back over her shoulder to lay her hand on Maura's.

"I informed my parents via email, as they travel extensively. My mother knew Jane and approved of her as my friend, however neither thought Jane was an appropriate partner for me" Her mouth twisted slightly, obviously Maura did not appreciate her parent's reaction. "They felt that I could do better" Natalie frowned.

"As if" Maura smiled slightly at her words before continuing.

"They felt that someone from my own stratum of society would be a more suitable choice for marriage 'to an Isles' as they put it" I saw Alex lean forward to place her wine glass down on the table, before settling back in Liv's embrace and speaking.

"Given how many people from 'our stratum of society' as they put it…" Her voice showed what she thought of that concept. "…are oxygen thieves, there's much to be said for not settling" Maura and Alex shared a look, both were daughters of wealth and privilege though you wouldn't know it from the careers they'd chosen, both could have led lives of indolent luxury, instead both had devoted their lives, at considerable personal risk, to putting criminals away. "Would they have preferred you marry someone like Garrett Fairfield?" At Maura's surprised look Alex smirked.

"Oh I'd heard all about that at the time, it was quite the scandal for a while, at least amongst the Hampton's set, they couldn't believe you'd walk away from such a wonderful man" Her voice turned into a mocking parody of a vacuous socialite. "Yes darling, I couldn't believe it either, Garret's such a catch, went to all the right schools, he's on all the right boards and committee's, I mean we play tennis at the same club for goodness sake" We were left smiling at her over the top airhead delivery as she shook her head, her voice returning to normal. "Shame about the whole him being a murderer thing though, I mean he had such great pecs" Maura smiled gently.

"My parents, in their defence, were somewhat surprised he did in fact turn out to be a murderer, but they would prefer that I find a nice boy from a good family and settle down" She shrugged and leaned forward, placing a gentle kiss to the top of Jane's head, before sitting back. "I told them I had already found someone from a good family. Jane's family may not have been monetarily wealthy, but they are rich in love and they have always accepted me, made me part of their family almost as soon as we met, for which I cannot ever truly repay them" Jane turned to fully face her, looking up and pulling a face.

"Sometimes I wonder about that Maur, dragging you into the middle of the whole Rizzoli family crazy" Maura reached forward, her hand caressing Jane's cheek softly.

"Your family may not be exactly what my parents consider appropriate, but they are exactly what I need Jane" She looked round the room at us all before looking back at Jane.

"I was born a Doyle, raised as an Isles but I am a Rizzoli now. They, and you, are my family"


	27. Chapter 27

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**27 International Cooperation**

Brenda's view

I dropped back into my seat with a small sigh, before reaching into my top drawer, snagging a couple of Reece's Butter Cups and unwrapping them, popping them into my mouth one by one and smiling happily as the chocolatey goodness melted on my tongue. No matter how bad things got a little chocolate helped put everything into perspective.

Sharon worried about me, called me a diabetic-in-waiting, had occasionally tried to wean me off chocolate but fortunately the boys in my squad helped out, they each threw a few dollars a week into a pot and topped up my desk drawer, apparently the thought of an angry Chief _sans chocolate_ was too horrible to contemplate. I just smiled and said nothing, though shouting a few extra rounds at O'Malley's on drinks nights helped ease my conscience, something I was sure the boys were aware of.

Today hadn't been particularly pleasant, It'd started with a team review of where we were with the home invasion's case first thing where we'd gone over all we had, basically coming to the uncomfortable conclusion we getting nowhere fast. We were sure that the people killed in the latest home invasion were Yakuza, probably from a different clan, but we were woefully short of actual details let alone leads, all our avenues had led nowhere, something that was as frustrating to the team as it was to me.

That had been followed by an hour-long briefing with Natalie to prep for sitting down with the press, before doing three back to back interviews with the Asian-language media, something I hated. Nat had run through some of the likely questions and we'd agreed on some answers, she reminded me that the media had agreed what was on and off the table plus she'd be there in the room during the interviews, in the background but ready to step in if needed. I smiled, having her there was good, she even cracked a couple of dreadful jokes and told a very embarrassing anecdote about her and Ana that had me smiling before we started, putting me a little more at ease before we walked in to begin the first interview.

Natalie had been good as her word, with the parameters of the interview agreed beforehand, but it was still stressful, staying polite and apparently unfazed when they asked why I hadn't caught the killers and how many more home invasions were going to happen before we did. I know it was just their job but it surely didn't help, especially when I was reduced to speaking in platitudes.

That had been followed by a less than pleasant meeting with Pope, asking much the same questions I'd just finished answering with the media, but much less forgiving and not at all interested in platitudes. There was always an undertone of tension when either Sharon or I had to deal with Will, he'd made it clear that he was still interested in me and he'd asked Sharon out several times before we got together. I really don't think he'd come to truly accept that I was no longer interested in guys, or that we were together, he probably took it as some kind of personal slight that he had no chance with either of us. Will wasn't stupid enough to try anything in retaliation though, god knows we'd be bringing a world of pain down on him if he tried, but that didn't mean everything was sunshine and roses. Basically we didn't go seeking him out, just got on with doing our jobs and looked upon our meetings with him as something uncomfortable to be endured, not enjoyed.

Fortunately lunch with Maura had followed, I loved catching up with her, her calmness and quiet humour a much needed de-stress from the morning's activities, we'd swapped stories about our day over salad and a shared slice of pecan tart, before agreeing to play tennis this Saturday morning, our lunch letting me head back to my office in a much better mood than when I'd left.

We'd had the monthly department heads budget meeting with the LAPDs finance people first up after lunch, commencing with their almost obligatory statements about how dire the Department's finances were and ending just on two hours later with the almost equally mandatory calls for restraint on overtime spending. Looking round the room I saw most of the Commanders and Chief's discreetly rollin' their eyes, like criminals bothered considering the LAPD's overtime woes when actually committin' crimes. We'd exchanged a few mostly hidden smiles at the bean counters expense before escaping from their world of accounts and fiscal forecasts and such, heading back out into the real world.

Candace Morrow from HR had been next up after Finance, talking about 'professional development opportunities' for the guys in the squad, basically reminding me that I was supposed to be nudging them to seek promotions outside Major Crimes, even though the thought of losing any of them was way too painful to easily contemplate. They deserved promotions, all of them, they were all great people but I was being selfish, I really couldn't face the idea of not having them round me as we worked, they were more than my squad, they were my family too. I'd finally agreed to talk to them, mostly to get Candace off my back, even though deep down I knew she was right.

In the end that meeting had run slightly overtime, so I'd had to hustle to make the next one, a much less stressful and far more useful one with the Japanese Police.

Ana had arranged for a video conference call with a Senior Superintendent with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Minoru Genda, a serious, mid-fifties looking man who spoke textbook English and who had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Yakuza. I gathered he was one of the Tokyo Police's top in-house Yakuza specialists; he surely did know his stuff. He'd walked Ana and I, plus Maura, who was turning into our own resident Yakuza expert, through some of the background on the Yakuza, before moving to more current events, especially the move into the US by several of the biggest clans.

I was struck that in some ways they worked like a lot of other organised crime families, while exhibiting some of the same characteristics of multinational corporations. From what I'd learned they'd branched out into other countries with significant Japanese populations, in particular Sydney, Vancouver, Hawaii and now Los Angeles and were showing the first signs of interest in San Francisco.

Back home in Japan they had an unusual reputation; in the past they'd supported the same society they preyed on, providing support like food in lean times, assistance during natural disasters, medical care when the state or the feudal lords wouldn't, even today parts of Japanese society, particularly older members, still looked upon the Yakuza with, if not outright approval, a distinct lack of disapproval. The Yakuza played on that of course, in some cases they were practically an open part of society, Yakuza leaders even being interviewed on the evening news for their take on politics and other events.

That was only in Japan though, the further away from Japan they got the more they behaved like the other organised crime organisations we had here in the US like the Columbians, the Mafia, the Triads, the Russian Organizatsia, the Irish crime gangs and the Mexican cartels.

Some of the Yakuza cleaved to a semblance of the old traditions, others less so. From what Superintendent Genda told us, the three Yakuza groups operating in LA covered the scale. The biggest and longest established were the Yamaguchi-gumi, a very traditional clan. The next largest was the Sumiyoshi-rengo who still held to some of the old ways, though not as much as the Yamaguchi-gumi, while the most recent arrival was the Inagawa-kaï, who weren't all that interested in tradition, acting much more like the organised crime organisations I was used to dealing with. As they represented the three biggest and most active Yakuza groups in Japan; they also had the resources to look beyond Japan to other markets.

Based on what he told us, the people most likely to be giving us grief were the Inagawa-kaï; according to the Tokyo Police's sources the Oyabun or leader of the Inagawa-kaï had recently decided to expand his operations into California, hoping to build up an entrée into the Methamphetamine trade currently being contested between the Yamaguchi-gumi and the Sumiyoshi-rengo.

After the recent home invasion I'd learned there was apparently a busy trade acquiring Meth precursor drugs in the US and shipping them to Japan, where they were much, much harder to come by. Once there they were used to make Meth of rare purity, some of which made its way to other locations, some of it even winding up making the round trip back here to California. The trouble was it was so pure and strong that local users, used to the adulterated rubbish the local gangs cooked up, found it all too easy to overdose on the Yakuza stock that the street dealers called Cherry Blossom.

Because they were arriving late to the party, the Inagawa-kaï had to work harder to make their mark and set up both access to the precursors and distribution for their end product, Superintendent Genda suggesting that they would likely to be both overt and brutal while carving out a niche, which certainly fitted the pattern we'd seen so far.

Superintendent Genda also pointed out that although there was a statistically significant Japanese population in California, they were culturally very different from the Japanese home islands in both society and culture. That meant that the yakuza wouldn't have the same level of acceptance, specially the Inagawa-kaï given they were the most recent arrivals. It also meant they couldn't get the same kind of assistance and support they were used to back in Japan, which might play into our hands.

He'd confirmed that, based on the images that Maura had taken of the deceased that she had passed on via Ana, there were stylustic differences between the body found in the burnt out van and the dead bodies in the most recent home invasion. It was very subtle, too subtle for our unschooled eyes but he'd confirmed that they came from different Yakuza clans, most likely the Inagawa-kaï for the man in the van and the Yamaguchi-gumi for the dead Yakuza in the house. That had raised the spectre of a turf war between two criminal organisations, something no one wanted to see, let alone here in LA on my watch.

All in all it had been a very productive hour's video-conference, while it hadn't given us any specific leads; it certainly gave me a better handle on the mindset we were dealing with. After the teleconference ended we'd sat around for another fifteen minutes discussing what we'd learned, before heading back to our respective desks.

Once there I'd sat back at my desk, studiously ignoring some of the more boring paperwork by checking emails to find that Natalie had forwarded a link to the interviews I'd done earlier, two of them had already aired and the third was scheduled for tonight's cable news. I watched both of them and thought I'd come across tolerably well, I'd sounded like we were actually making progress on the case, even though I knew better. Thinking about what Superintendent Genda had said reminded me to do a little digging so I called up what we had on the Yamaguchi-gumi, they seemed to operate fairly low key here in LA compared to a lot more overt groups like the Columbians, the Mexicans, the Triad and the Mafia. Even the Russian Organizatsiya was more overt than these guys. I made a resolution to chase them up with the organised crime people as soon as I could, it was always better to know your enemy, no matter how under the radar they tried to fly.

I sat back and looked out over the Murder Room, watching my squad working away. I was very fond of them all, the thought of any of them leaving was honestly painful, but if I was going to be their friend as well as their boss I needed to start encouraging them to move onward and upward, lord knows they deserved it. As I sat there I saw Jane walk in to the squad room, holding something colourful in her hand.

Seeing her got me to thinking about her and Maura. We were so lucky to have them both, Maura was a superlative Medical Examiner, the best I've ever worked with, which was saying something as her predecessor Doctor Morales had been very, very good. She was also a wonderful friend, Sharon and I thought the world of her, she'd been a fantastic help when we'd been just starting out together and she'd been there for us every step of the way since; I counted myself very lucky to have her as my friend.

Jane on the other hand was an outstanding detective, as good as any and better than most, she had tenacity, keen intelligence, an eye for detail, empathy with the victims and her instincts were excellent. In the time she'd been with us she'd become an integral part of the team, the others trusted her and she in turn had come to trust them. She had also become a very good friend; someone I knew would stand by me, by us, no matter what.

I consoled myself that even if some of the other guys did move out; promoted into more senior roles, Jane would still be here, still a key part of the team. I was probably being selfish but she was one member I really didn't want to let go of. She was a lot more than a subordinate or colleague, she was my friend. Unconsciously following her with my eyes, I suddenly realised she was walking towards my office, something held in her hand.

"Uh Chief" I stood as she stepped into the office. "You have a package" Holding it out as she walked over to my desk I realised she was holding a shiny cylinder sealed at both ends with an embossed wax seal.

Turning it over in my hands I could see it was a cylinder made from high-quality laminated cardboard, embossed with colourful chrysanthemums and cherry blossoms, with koi fish, dragons and tigers surrounding the blossoms, all quintessentially Japanese in style. A wax seal at each end held it together, each seal bore an ornate Oriental design that had been pressed into the wax as it had cooled. The address on the cylinder was done in an ornate set of brush strokes, definitely not your usual letter.

Jane looked up at me and smiled.

"Your birthday coming up and you didn't tell me?" I smiled back.

"Not that I'm aware"

"Maybe you have a secret admirer" I snickered at that idea as I reached into my second drawer for a letter opener. With a little effort I cracked the seal at one end and fished out a tightly rolled up sheet of high quality pattern-embossed paper tied with a red ribbon. With Jane's help we unrolled it and laid it out on the table. Like the cylinder the writing was done with a fine brush, definitely something out of the ordinary.

I ran my eyes down the message, then once more, before looking up to see Jane's eyes on me as I spoke.

"Well, that's the nicest invitation to lunch I've had for a while" She smiled.

"Too bad it's from a mob boss; you think Sharon'll be jealous?" I looked up at her and smiled back.

"Maybe, I was thinking of taking a chaperone or two, just in case" Jane stood back and looked at me, shrugging.

"Can't hurt"

"How do you feel about Sushi?" She grimaced.

"Can't stand it" I nodded slowly, thinking it over.

"Then I'd better bring someone with me who likes it"


	28. Chapter 28

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**28 Meeting with the Oyabun**

Brenda's viewpoint

The restaurant was interesting, I'd never been a huge fan of Japanese cuisine, but when the head of the largest Yakuza family on the West Coast, the Oyabun of the Yamaguchi-gumi, invites you to lunch, it's probably a good idea to make an exception.

I stepped out of my car parked half a block up the street from the restaurant and settled the hidden radio earpiece in place. It was my ace in the hole in case things went wrong. I didn't expect they would, we were in a public place after all and he'd been the one to invite me in the first place, but Sharon had insisted I take some precautions. I looked up the street and smiled.

"Can everyone hear me?" I heard Buzz's reassuring voice confirming that I was coming in loud and clear to a van parked just down the street where he was recording everything, followed by Lieutenant Provenza from a car where he and Lieutenant Tao were watching the restaurant's rear.

I was about to say something when I heard two distinct metallic clicks through the earpiece, apparently a military thing, keying a radio mike twice to confirm a radio message, and smiled. "I'll take that as a yes. Please keep the talking to a minimum everyone, I want everything recorded" Buzz spoke up, confirming that the tapes were running, followed by two distinct clicks so I looked over at Maura and nodded.

"Shall we" She nodded back, a trifle nervously, until she saw Jane standing with Flynn, Sanchez and Gabriel closer to the restaurant, at which point she relaxed. I admired the trust she had in Jane to protect her and envied her that confidence, then reminded myself that I trusted Sharon just as much for the same reasons. Meeting up with the others I nodded.

"Detectives" They all nodded and we moved towards the restaurant. "We have eyes on the front and rear, so your job is to keep things quiet inside" Andy Flynn smiled.

"Got it Chief, just remember to not eat the Fugu" Maura suddenly brightened.

"Oh, do you think they will have Fugu on the menu" That is quite the delicacy" I looked between the two.

"Fugu?" Flynn grinned around his toothpick.

"Poisonous fish" Maura smiled brightly, her voice full of joy at imparting knowledge.

"The liver, ovaries and skin of the Fugu Fish, sometimes called the Puffer Fish, are poisonous, it acts as a sodium channel blocker" Jane just glanced over at her with the look of the long suffering and much put-upon.

"And that is…" Maura smiled.

"It is a natural toxin that paralyses the muscles while the victim stays fully conscious. The victim is unable to breathe, dying from asphyxiation" I nodded, a little bemused why anyone would want to eat it, before smiling at her, making light of it.

"I hope you've got an antidote on you then Maura" She turned to me, surprise on her face, as if she kept forgetting that other people didn't know the same things she did.

"Oh no, there is no known antidote" Gabriel looked a little queasy right there.

"Then why the hell do people eat it?" Maura smiled.

"Well-prepared Fugu is considered to be a rare delicacy" I shook my head again.

"Good to know, let's hope it's not on the menu" Maura of course was disappointed.

"That would be a shame" Jane and Sanchez both just silently shook their heads as we moved towards the restaurant, before Jane spoke.

"I suppose that depends on how suicidal you might be feeling" Maura was completely unfazed by Jane's sarcastic tone.

"Correct, some people do consume Fugu liver as a more traditional way to commit suicide" I just shook my head and smiled as Gabriel opened the door and I led the way into the stylish surrounds of Kagaya; one of LA's better Japanese restaurants, I was struck by how small and intimate it was, with a very café feel. I was surprised; the décor was light, mostly white and wooden furnishings, bamboo by the look of it, with a counter facing an open kitchen where the chefs were at work.

Apparently it was renowned for something called Shaba Shaba; delicious cuisine according to Maura, which was why she was walking in with me, she loved Japanese cuisine and could advise me of what I'd probably like; after all, throwing up all over the Oyabun was probably considered bad manners, maybe they'd expect me to slice my tummy open with a knife to atone or something equally silly. I reminded myself that I may have spent a little too much time dredging up old movie memories of Black Rain and the Last Samurai and resolved to concentrate on the here and now.

I saw several large men sitting at the main counter, while another stood near the rear door. I'd passed two more sitting in a car out the front, obviously he took his security seriously so I'd followed his lead; besides Maura I was accompanied by Lieutenant Flynn and Detective's Gabriel, Sanchez and Rizzoli. Jane had nearly lost her composure at my request that Maura join us, but she was our resident expert on the Yakuza and was learning to speak Japanese, so I'd been firm, Jane finally giving in with obvious misgivings.

The compromise we'd agreed was that Jane would be in the restaurant on guard, keeping an eye on us while we met with Minoru Kurita, the Oyabun. A waitress came and upon being informed I was dining with Mr Kurita bowed and led us to a table against the wall.

David and Julio took up posts near the front door, while Jane and Andy sat down at the main counter, leaving Maura and I to be led to the table occupied by two men, one older than the other, maybe mid-50s compared to the other man's late-40s. The waitress bowed and withdrew, leaving us standing there. The older man looked up at me and nodded.

"Konichiwa Miss Johnson, I am Minoru Kurita and this is my associate Shunji Isaki" I nodded.

"Good afternoon to you Mister Kurita; this is my associate Doctor Maura Isles" Maura nodded her head and spoke.

"Konichiwa Kurita Sama, Isaki San" I don't know what it meant but both nodded before Kurita indicated the empty seats across the table from him.

"Thank you for joining us Miss Johnson, Doctor Isles" I smiled, trying to ignore the fact that I was sitting down across from a major crime boss, the Japanese version of a Mafia godfather in a way, and concentrated on being polite.

"It was my pleasure, thank you for inviting us" He looked at us both for a moment, then leaned back.

"If you have not eaten at Kagaya before I can suggest a number of dishes" I smiled again and indicated Maura.

"Why thank you, thank you so much. While I haven't had the pleasure Doctor Isles here is my expert on Japanese food" He nodded and sat back as the waitress appeared, as Isaki spoke rapidly in Japanese, before the waitress moved away. Kurita looked at me and spoke.

"I have taken the liberty of ordering a drink, to lubricate our discussion" I thought about it and smiled.

"That's very kind of you" He nodded.

"It is my pleasure. I understand you are not a native of Los Angeles?" I nodded in return, Maura having warned me that excessively polite small talk was practically a requirement of Japanese business discussions, which, in a way, was what this was.

"No, I am originally from the south-east of America, Georgia actually" I smiled politely. "And you?"

"I am from Kyushu, the southernmost island of the Home Islands" Maura nodded slowly, all poise and grace as I reminded myself that she was very used to handling herself in high society.

"Kyushu, traditionally the recruiting grounds for many of the Yamaguchi-gumi is it not?"

"Indeed, you are well informed" She smiled politely and sat back as the waitress arrived with four glasses of what turned out to be Plum wine. Sweet and easy to drink, I sipped it and made a mental note to stretch this glass out; I wasn't here to get drunk.

The next ten minutes passed in rather meaningless small talk, carried on rather better by Maura than I, as I saw Jane and Andy drinking tea at the counter and keeping an eye on everything happening, while Julio and a member of what I assumed were the Oyabun's bodyguards had a mutual stare down contest near the front door, I didn't think either was going to back down anytime soon, leaving David to scan the restaurant.

Lunch was Shaba Shaba; at Maura's recommendation I went with the mix of Wagyu beef and Alaskan King Crab with oriental vegetables. You dipped the meat or vegetable into a boiling kelp broth at the table to cook to taste and then dipped into a variety of sauces to add spice; eaten with rice it was delicious and I made a mental note to bring Sharon back here, she'd love it.

Lunch passed with even more annoyingly trivial small talk, something Kurita was very good at, Isaki less so, he was a little less removed from his street thug roots, fortunately Maura was able to effortlessly carry the conversation when I grew tired of the meaningless nature of it, before we finally finished, I sat back as the waitress finished clearing the table, then looked across at my host.

"Mister Kurita, while lunch was excellent, I will remind you that I am here at your request, may I ask exactly what it was you wished to talk about?" He regarded me for a moment.

"You are direct, as I have learned is the way of Americans" I smiled my best politician's smile.

"I find getting to the heart of the matter avoids everyone's time being wasted" He inclined his head.

"You are investigating a series of assaults on members of the city's Asian community" It wasn't a question so I waited, holding myself impassive. This wasn't my normal interrogation room, but the same rules applied. He regarded me for almost a minute before making a noncommittal move with his head. "The individuals responsible for those attacks are, as you have surmised, members of the Yakuza" I nodded.

"You're simply confirming what we already know" I saw Isaki's eyes narrow; his self-control wasn't as strong as Kurita's. Kurita remained impassive; apparently controlling one's emotions was considered good form for the head of a criminal empire.

"The individuals in question are not members of the Yamaguchi-gumi. They are members of the Inagawa-kaï, a completely different organisation" I sipped at the second half of my Plum wine before putting the glass down and nodding.

"I appreciate that as well" Kurita watched me for a few seconds before he spoke again.

"They have only recently arrived here in Los Angeles, having been here for less than three months. They are made up of a number of individuals who support a rising star within the Inagawa-kaï, Shinzo Abe" Maura and I both nodded as Kurita continued. "Abe is an ambitious man with intentions to rise above his station quickly, causing problems for the Oyabun of the Inagawa-kaï" I nodded again; politics, the root of oh so many, many problems. Kurita was still speaking. "By sending them to America he is ostensibly giving Abe a chance to carve out a profitable niche and make his mark, proving he is ready for further rise within the organisation" I pursed my lips.

"Also sending him somewhere where any successes he achieves are muted by distance and he is cut off from support if something should go wrong" Kurita regarded me for a moment then nodded once as he spoke.

"An accurate summation of the circumstances" I shrugged.

"I may not be all that familiar with the Yakuza, but politics is something I've been forced to learn" He nodded once more.

"Politics indeed; Abe was accompanied here by a number of others, key supporters and those who had attached themselves most closely to his coat tails" Maura nodded, I could tell she was fascinated, then spoke.

"Placing all of the potential troublemakers in one place, far removed from Japan" Kurita favoured her with a nod.

"Yes, if Abe succeeds in growing the reach, power and influence of the Inagawa-kaï here in California, his success strengthens the Oyabun's hand, making it seem if the Oyabun chose wisely. If however Abe is unsuccessful, he is seen to have been given a chance to succeed and failed" I nodded, politics was pretty universal.

"And if the Police were to shut his operation down and capture or kill him, then his failure would be complete" Maura glanced at me as I finished then looked across the table.

"Not to mention the failure would be at a considerable distance from the centre of power and influence for the Inagawa-kaï, costing them little and barely inconveniencing the Oyabun" Kurita smiled tightly and sat back.

"Exactly, an elegant response to an internal problem" I frowned.

"It would also remove your rival here in LA" He smiled again, though there was no warmth in it.

"There is that benefit as well" I toyed with the stem of my glass for a moment, drawing out the silence before finally speaking.

"Surely Abe saw the risks, why did he walk into what looks like a situation with damn near no upside and plenty of downside?" Kurita's hands gestured as he spoke.

"Like many such men, his ambition is a driving factor; he is young and lacks patience. Change comes slowly in organisations such as ours, we are many hundreds of years old and our traditions are not to be quickly tossed aside for the sake of expediency or ambition" His mouth twisted with distaste. "For example, he styles himself the local Oyabun" I pursed my lips.

"From what I'm told your traditions don't include home invasions, rape and murder of civilians either" Kurita's jaw tightened.

"Not…normally, no" I sat back and thought about it for a moment. Abe had embarked on his crime spree not long after he'd arrived, what he was doing was bound to attract police attention, so why do it… My mind raced through the facts for a few seconds before they clicked into place, I looked up.

"He's on the clock. He sees that he doesn't have a lot of time, so he's trying to raise a lot of money quickly, he doesn't have time to waste setting up an operation like smuggling or prostitution or the other usual methods. Like you said, he's impatient so he needs to make cash quickly so he can fund other operations" Kurita raised an eyebrow as I continued thinking about it, pushing the pieces of the puzzle into place. By killing people Abe was not only attracting attention, he was sending a message, but to who… I stared across at Kurita.

"He's telling people like you that he's not afraid to do whatever it takes, including murder. It's why he attacked your people out in Gardena, it's a message, he's telling you to stay the hell away and not interfere" I narrowed my eyes at Kurita. "And it's worked, that's why we're sitting down here" I sat back in the chair. "You want us to do the dirty work you either won't or can't" Kurita smiled without humour.

"You wish to see his actions come to an end, as do I. A fortuitous confluence of interests" I nodded slowly.

"It could be seen like that. It could also be seen as you being afraid to cross Abe, so you're hiding from him, while giving us enough info to go after him, removing the threat while keeping your hands clean and you safe" Kurita's smile disappeared as Isaki slammed his hand down on the table, his voice rising.

"We are not afraid of them" I turned to look at him, seeing his white-knuckled fist on the table, raising one eyebrow at the display.

"Then why has Mister Kurita's family suddenly left for Japan, his daughter pulled out of school quickly?" A background check on Kurita had turned up that little nugget this morning. "It looks like someone's afraid of what Abe may be capable of"

"We are not afraid, of him or you!" I sat back, watching as Isaki's face contorted with anger before I spoke.

"The last attack in Gardena, that was an attack on his competition, your organisation. He's telling you he won't be bound by any of your conventions back home, that this is a different ball game here. He's got you targeted" Isaki turned to Kurita and spoke rapidly in what sounded like angry Japanese, making Kurita reach out and lay his hand on Isaki's forearm as he spoke, trying to calm him down. I couldn't understand what he said but it didn't calm him down, instead if anything Isaki became more heated, his voice rising. Maura sat back, leaning my way slightly and keeping her voice low.

"I am unable to follow most of it, but I think Mister Isaki is opposed to bringing us in, he wants to deal with this himself…" We were suddenly interrupted by another fist hitting the table in front of Maura. Isaki's face was red with fury.

"Shut your mouth or I will shut it for you" I noticed movement ripple through the room as Jane stood, her face cold and hard, her hand automatically sliding towards her left hip as she cleared a direct line of fire to Isaki, Andy turning to stare at some of the bodyguards seated nearby as he moved into a position where he could draw his weapon. I saw hands moving inside coats throughout the restaurant and realised Kurita's men were picking up on Isaki's anger; this could spin out of control all too quickly. I held a hand up to Jane and the others, waving them back as I stared at Isaki.

"Calm down now! Before this gets out of hand" He stared at me, a vein in his neck throbbing as he partly rose from his seat.

"Who are you to tell us what to do?" I spoke through gritted teeth.

"I'm the one with all the aces, so sit down now, while you still can"

"I do not take orders from weak women" I felt my teeth grinding as I ground out my words.

"But you will take orders from me, now sit down"" He looked like he was about to argue the toss. "Ana, the one standing in front of us, light him up" I felt a small thrill of relief as two clicks sounded in my ear, a small red dot appearing in the middle of Isaki's chest.

"Look down Mister Isaki, look down at your chest right now" I was afraid he was going to do something really stupid but a curse from Kurita grabbed his attention, as Isaki turned to see Kurita's gaze fixed on his chest. Looking down he saw a small red dot on his jacket, moving ever so gently just slightly to the left of centre, close to where his heart was. Seeing him freeze, I tried to calm things down.

"Now very carefully sit down Mister Isaki, before my friend decides you are posing a threat to Doctor Isles and I and decides to intervene; she is rather protective" I heard another two clicks in my ear and suppressed a relieved smile as Isaki slowly settled back in his seat, the red laser pointer still centred over his heart, before I looked across at Kurita. "Please ask your men to relax, we're not here for trouble, unless you want to start it" Kurita nodded once, then turned and said something in a harsh voice, making everyone jump a little, before his men forced themselves to relax, hands out where they could be seen. In turn Jane, Andy, Julio and David relaxed slightly and returned to their places though the tension remained. Kurita nodded his head once in our direction.

"It was not my intention to have trouble occur" I shrugged.

"Nor mine, but I believe in being prepared" Kurita regarded me through narrowed eyes.

"You are more…formidable than you appear" I smiled, completely without humour.

"I am supported by very good people" He nodded slowly once.

"A wise leader is known by the strength of their followers" I shrugged.

"They're not my followers, they're my friends" It was the honest truth. Kurita's eyes narrowed further as he stared at me, finally nodding once, as if to himself.

"As I said, you are formidable; with friends like these, even more so" I tilted my head.

"I find people underestimating me make mistakes" He smiled diplomatically.

"One I will not make again Chief Johnson" I sat back in my seat.

"So your people will remain calm?" He forced a slow breath out and mimicked me, settling back.

"They will" I nodded once.

"Thank you Ana; that should be fine" I heard two clicks in the earpiece as the red dot vanished, though we all knew she was out there. I looked back to Kurita, it was time to take control. "Now then, let's stop beating around the bush. Do you know where Abe and his people are hiding out?"

I could see Kurita forcing himself to relax, before he reached out and drained the last of his Plum wine.

"His men are scattered amongst the population of Gardena, hiding in plain sight" I nodded, it made sense, they could blend in amongst the area's large Japanese population. "I do know that Abe and his Wakagashira are living in Little Tokyo, exactly where I know not, though you should check restaurants" I raised an eyebrow at Maura, who leaned in and whispered.

"I believe it means second in command" I nodded as Kurita clasped his hands together and rested them on the table.

"Back home the Inagawa-kaï tend to own or operate restaurants" He shrugged. "They are useful for money laundering and drug transactions" I nodded, all those people coming and going, people walking in for takeout, handing over cash and walking away with more than just dinner. Kurita looked across the table at me.

"I have been in America long enough to understand the benefits of occasionally being blunt Chief Johnson. Abe is a dangerous man, his Wakagashira, a man named Isoroku Homoru, is an even more dangerous one. Abe kills to achieve an end, Homoru kills because he can" He looked down at the table for a moment as I recalled the man with the knife, the vision on screen of the throat being cut, nodding as he continued. "Yes, I have sent my family home because Abe has threatened them" He looked back up at me. "If I send my men after him it will ignite a war, both here and back in Japan, something in neither of our interests, so I am turning to you" I felt my mouth twist; he wanted us to do his dirty work. "I should inform you Miss Johnson, of another fact, one you may not yet be aware of" I nodded once.

"Please go on Mister Kurita, you have my attention"

The actions of Abe and his people have undermined the delicate balance between our clans here in Los Angeles; Abe has also struck at the operations of the Sumiyoshi-rengo clan. They too have issues with Abe's actions, unlike me however they are prepared to undertake a more direct response" I felt my face tighten, knowing where this was leading.

"You're talking a war"

"Yes Chief Johnson, I am" I frowned.

"I personally wouldn't give a damn if they stuck to killing each other, but too many innocent lives have already been lost, if there's a war a lot more will be"

"That is unfortunately correct, while neither the Sumiyoshi-rengo nor the Yamaguchi-gumi seek such a conflict, the actions of Abe and the Inagawa-kaï threaten us all and will require a response" I held my hand up in a 'stop' gesture.

"If you have any influence over your fellow Yakuza, tell them that at the moment, my entire focus is on shutting Abe and his people down. They are not on my radar right now, however if a war starts, not only will they be on my radar, I can guarantee that every federal and state law enforcement organisation in California will be on their case as well as Abe's" He tilted his head at my request, then spoke.

"I will convey your request to the Sumiyoshi-rengo, though I have no control of their actions" He shrugged. "Much will depend on how quickly you can stop Abe" With effort I smothered a snort, hell now it wasn't just the media, Pope and the Mayor's office breathing down my neck about this case, I now had organised crime on my back as well. I scowled across the table at Kurita.

"I despise being seen to be cleaning up your mess, but I'll take down Abe" He nodded once as I leaned forward. "But understand this Mister Kurita. Once I've finished with Abe and his Waka…whatever"

"Wakagashira" Maura helpfully inserted. I smiled.

Thank you Doctor Isles. Yeah him, once I've dealt with them, I'll be looking at you too" I shrugged. "Perhaps you may wish to consider joining your family in Japan" His face took on a hurt look, though I doubted he knew the meaning of the emotion.

"I have helped you and you display such ingratitude?" I leaned forward, my voice low and flat with barely suppressed anger.

"You have embroiled me in your problems, your organisations are bringing your politics and feuds to my city where innocent families die because of them and now you expect me to clean up your mess?" I looked down at the table as I felt my anger growing within me and stamped down on it, I had to stay in control; there were too many people in here on hair triggers, it wouldn't take much to start something really bad. I breathed deeply then exhaled slowly, trying for some semblance of calm before I spoke again. Finally I looked up, seeing Kurita watching me.

"I can tell you that gratitude is not exactly what I'm feeling right now, far from it in fact" I caught Maura's eye and tilted my head towards the exit as she nodded. I looked back at Kurita.

"Thank you for lunch, Mister Kurita, I will take your information under advisement" I stood and stepped back, making room for Maura to slide out of the booth, Kurita standing as well, Maura tipped her head at both men and spoke.

"Sayonara" They both nodded, as I did as well, before speaking.

"I hope that we never have to meet across one of my interrogation tables, it won't be anywhere near as pleasant" He met my gaze levelly and nodded once.

"I understand. Good afternoon Chief Johnson"

"Good afternoon to you Mister Kurita"

With that I turned and walked out, followed by Maura and my detectives. Looking round I saw Ana already making her way down the fire escape on the building across the street, her telescopic sight with laser pointer safely slung around her neck. Turning I saw Maura wearing a thoughtful expression and looked at her; she obviously picked up on my unspoken question.

"You did not contribute to the bill; however I believe that was appropriate as he was the host"

"No Maura, I stiffed him with the bill because I was being rude. The next time I see him I hope it's to watch as he's leaving LAX bound for Japan; that is if I can't toss him in jail first"


	29. Chapter 29

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**29 Yakuza Investigation**

Jane's viewpoint

Armed with the details we had from Benda and Maura's lunch with the Yakuza boss, Ana had chased down the names with Superintendent Genda in Tokyo and he'd sent across a set of images of both of the names we had, Shinzo Abe and Isoroku Homoru. Their glowering portraits now decorated the board in the squad room as we plotted our next move.

We were doing the usual cop things, looking for patterns, trying to find things to tie each of the victims together, so far with no luck. Their kids went to different schools, the adults didn't belong to the same organisations, they mostly didn't socialise in the same circles, didn't use the same bank, shop at the same places, it seemed their lives didn't cross over at all.

Oh, there were a few small intersections, two of the families used the same law firm, one specialising in Japanese-language clients, but none of the others did. In another case two of the victim's had worked to support the election of City Councillor Mori with money and contacts in the Asian business community, helping to explain his interest in the case, but the others had no political involvement. It was enough to make you want to bang your head against a wall but it was something we'd all grown used to over the years.

The morning had come and gone with no luck, so we were sitting around at lunchtime, munching away and kicking theories around. Maura wasn't around to have lunch with, she was meeting with the instructors at the Academy to discuss some changes to the training rookies got about not messing up crime scenes, anything that reduced crime scene contamination was a good thing, god knows we'd all had scenes ruined by clumsy rookies.

So I was sitting at my desk, taking advantage of Maura's absence to polish off a decent burger, some fries and a chocolate milkshake; what she didn't know about wouldn't hurt her, or me. I looked across at Mike Tao who had just finished off an exhaustive check of each family's finances, cross-referencing for matches and was talking to Flynn.

"No luck there, they all spent money at Home Depot, Target, that sort of thing, but we've all done that, so nothing conclusive in that" Flynn frowned.

"Damn, that sucks" I nodded. We'd added financial cross-referencing for matches to the standard set of tools after it had helped us close the sniper case last year, but it wasn't much help if there was nothing there to find. My phone vibrated, letting me know I had a text; checking it I unconsciously smiled, it was from Maura. I read it and started putting together a response when I suddenly stopped dead, thinking about what she'd said, before looking up.

"What about people they pay cash to" I got a few confused looks before Sanchez asked the question.

"Huh? Like who?"

"I dunno, maids, pool boys, the kids who mow their lawns, carpet cleaners, the guys who clean out the gutters or wash their cars, people like that" Flynn looked pensive.

"Ya think?"

"Maura just texted to remind me to pay the guys who keep our pool clean; it's a small-time father and son operation who don't take credit cards, so we have to pay them cash; lots of people deal with small time, off the grid operators like that. Maybe that's our connection" Tao pulled a face.

"Maybe, it'll take some digging though" Sanchez shrugged.

'It's not like we've had any luck with anything else. It's worth a shot" I saw a series of nods around the room, enough so that Flynn and I took it to Brenda who thought about it for a moment, then agreed.

"Commander Raydor has a lady who lives a few blocks away come in once a week to do some light cleaning, sweeping up the floors, dusting the shelves and benches and all, the woman's a widowed retiree living on her own so she needs to make ends meet. It works out well for everyone" She nodded to herself, before looking up at us. "It's worth looking into"

With that we got moving, checking with as many people as we could. Three hours later we were sitting back in the squad room, writing up a list of people each family used. It turned out there were a lot of small operations doing things like the lawns, cleaning, dog grooming and such, most of whom did it on a cash in hand basis.

We had a number of matches across most of our victims, an aquarium and fish pond maintenance service, a garden maintenance company and a set of painters, but the problem was the Shimamura family. The entire family had been killed, leaving us with no one to talk to, so Gabriel and I were stuck with wandering around their street, talking to neighbors once more.

Several of the surrounding families had seen various services in the street but none of them were a match to the ones on our list, leaving us with a dead end. One or two homes were empty, so we'd have to come back another time to interview them. We were about to leave when we saw a car pull into the house across the street, no one had been home earlier, so Gabriel and I exchanged a look and got back out of the car, wandering up the drive. We arrived to see an Asian woman, in her late-fifties or early-sixties I'd guess from the subtle grey hair, one of those women who don't age much till they hit their seventies, just opening the back of her people mover.

"Good afternoon ma'am, LAPD, can we talk to you for a minute?" At my voice she turned to see us walking up the drive. I pushed my jacket back, letting her see the badge as Gabriel did the same.

"Sargeant Gabriel and Detective Rizzoli ma'am, wonder if we can have a few words?" Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Hello officers, is something wrong?" Gabriel smiled in that reassuring way we'd all practiced using on potential witnesses.

"No ma'am, just a couple of routine questions following up on the home invasion across the street" She nodded.

"Oh yes, that was so horrible, the Shimamura's were lovely people, my son and their eldest daughter were in the same class together at junior high. He's still upset about it, we all are. It's not that sort of neighborhood at all" I nodded, taking in the pile of grocery bags in the back.

"Can we help you with those?" The woman smiled as Gabriel eyed me off but he went with it, we might as well get her relaxed, she might remember more if she didn't feel pressured.

"That would be lovely. Let me get the front door open" Between us Gabriel and I grabbed all the bags and followed her in, dumping the bags on the bench top as the woman smiled.

"Thank you. Can I get you a cup of coffee or perhaps a tea?"

"Coffee would be fine Mrs.…"

"Aoki, Keiko Aoki" She looked up at Gabriel. "And you young man?"

"Coffee would be fine too thanks ma'am" We were directed to stools by the island bench as Mrs. Aoki bustled around making coffee. With a few gentle prompts she started telling us about the Shimamura's.

"They were lovely people; they've been living here for…oh it must be fifteen years or more. I remember that Misora; Mrs. Shimamura, was pregnant with her second daughter Namiko when they arrived. Her other daughter Reina was two when they moved in. Reina and my son Tommy were inseparable growing up, they were the same age" I nodded.

"So you knew them well Mrs. Aoki?" She had one of those automatic coffee makers that you stuck a pod into and pushed a button. For a moment I wondered why we didn't have one of those, quick and easy, until I remembered that Maura preferred really expensive specialist blends from god knows where, some of which had been through some animal's digestive system before being ground up. As for Ana, she'd probably recoil in horror at the thought of using one, being a trained barista and all.

"Oh yes, we were both on the same school committee, our children grew up together you see. We'd stop round and chat all the time, Misora was lovely, you know she baked the best brownies, they always sold out at our school fund raisers" We nodded as the coffee machine worked away. Gabriel leaned forward.

"What about Mister Shimamura?"

"Oh Raizo was a nice man, always working hard. He's a merchant banker" She pulled a sad face at the slip. "Well he was now I suppose. He worked down at Bank of America, in the section that handled business with Japanese companies with offices here in America. He was very good at it too, enough so they'd just installed a pool a few months back and bought a new car" I nodded, look like we'd hit pay dirt; Mrs. Aoki seemed like the street's busybody, her nose in everyone else's business.

"We were wondering if you saw anything unusual the morning of the incident at the Shimamura's."

"Unfortunately no, I was out at the nail salon at the mall having a new set of nails fitted" She waved her fingers, showing off a set of French nails. "I didn't get back until it was all over and the street was full of police cars" She pulled out one cup and pushed it in front of Gabriel, then dug out milk, a milk frother, sugar, non-sugar sweetener and spoons, placing them on the bench. "Please help yourself young man" She turned and started another cup. "I remember telling another officer, Officer Flynn I think it was, that I hadn't been here at the time" I looked across at Gabriel as he stirred in milk and sugar, sharing a tiny smile at Andy's 'demotion', before I looked back at Mrs. Aoki.

"We have a few other questions for you, hopefully you can help us" She smiled at me while setting up the machine to make another coffee.

"Of course dear, if I can" I noticed the 'dear' and ignored it. I suppose at her age we all look young.

"We were wondering if the Shimamura's used any contractors to do some of the work around the house, y'know, maids, carpet cleaners, pool cleaners, that sort of thing"

"Oh no, Misora was very house proud, she spent hours every day working around the home, kept it spotless" I nodded as the coffee cup under the machine filled up. Gabriel put his cup down and spoke.

"What about the pool, you said it was new?"

"Raizo; Mister Shimamura, he used to clean it each weekend; he was the one who wanted the pool, he'd had a heart attack a few years back and swam for exercise each morning and afternoon. During the school holidays Namiko, Reina, Tommy and their friends were in it all day long" She paused for a moment and shook her head slowly, then sighed. "A terrible thing Detective" She pushed the now-full cup across the bench towards me. "Your coffee"

"Thank you" I poured some milk and sugar in as Gabriel took up the questions.

"You said that the pool was new ma'am, how new?" I sipped the coffee which wasn't all that bad as Mrs. Aoki answered.

"Oh, about eight or nine months old I guess. I remember, the pool people got a big crane in to lift the shell up over their house and into the hole they'd dug in the back yard, I stood out on my front yard and watched them, took about an hour all up to get it in" I nodded slowly. Nine months ago was well before the Yakuza had arrived. Gabriel was nodding too.

"I see you have a lovely garden, do you do it yourself or get someone in?" Mrs. Aoki smiled.

"Oh I do all that, I love gardening. I'm having great success with my roses this year" Gabriel smiled.

"Did Mrs. Shimamura do her own garden, it looks nice"

"Oh no, Misora used to joke she had a black thumb, plants would die when she came near them" I turned and looked out through the front window, seeing a pretty lush garden in front of the Shimamura's house across the street, before turning back.

"Looks pretty nice to me, but I'm not into gardening"

"Oh, that's a shame detective, I find it very peaceful. Very soothing" Gabriel however had picked up on my comment, exchanging a look with me before following up.

"Did the Shimamura's have someone come in to work on their garden ma'am?"

"Yes, as I recall they did, some local company I think. I remember they had a picture of a cherry blossom on the side of their truck" She paused. "I remember it because it's a very Japanese flower" For a moment her eyes were somewhere else. "I love cherry blossoms; they remind me so much of growing up in Japan, the cherry blossom festival, the lovely scent in the air. I'd grow them here but sadly they don't do too well here in California. Far too hot and dry unfortunately, you can give them plenty of water, but the heat is too much for them, you'd need an arboretum" She looked up at us. "Have either of you been to Japan?" Gabriel smiled.

"No ma'am" I shook my head.

"My fiancée wants us to visit, maybe next year, if we can get the time off" Mrs. Aoki smiled.

"If you can, go during the Cherry Blossom festival, it's beautiful, the trees are in bloom all across Japan, it's a wonderful holiday, it's something you really must see" I nodded.

"We'll keep that in mind" I glanced at Gabriel and we dragged the conversation back on track. "Do you recall the name of the gardening company the Shimamura's used, the one with the flower on the truck?"

"I don't recall paying too much attention, let me think" Gabriel glanced at me and I saw his hand reach into his pocket, but I subtly shook my head. Better Mrs. Aoki remember the name unprompted, especially if it came to court, that way the defence couldn't claim we'd coached the results. "I remember now, Rising Sun, that was the name of the company, that was it" I nodded, dissapointed, that name wasn't on any of our lists.

"Rising Sun?" It was Gabriel. "You're sure about that ma'am?" She nodded.

"Oh yes, Rising Sun. I remember it because it was in Kanji, you don't see the Kanji characters used very often over here" Gabriel frowned, not following her.

"Kanji characters?"

"The original Japanese characters, made with brush strokes. Over here you normally see the translated version, either the phonetic translation or the English translation" I frowned, wishing Maura was here, she'd know what she was talking about.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Aoki, I'm not following you. Are you saying there can be multiple names for something?"

"Not really detective. In Japanese there is a very literal meaning for everything, there is very little chance of being misunderstood, each word means one thing only. Compared to English it's very simple and straightforward. When I came here from Japan as a child everything was very hard because you have different meanings for words" She smiled, suddenly looking a lot younger. "The one that always used to confuse me was the words 'there, their and they're'; you see in Japanese you couldn't have a sentence with three words that sound exactly the same but have different meanings" She shook her head, still smiling. "It was all very confusing to a young girl trying to learn English" We both smiled, before Gabriel spoke, confusion in his voice.

"So there can be multiple ways to write the same Japanese word?"

"Certainly" She reached round and pulled up a tablet lying on the bench top, powering it up. "I follow news from Japan on one of the main news sites over there" She opened up a page and spun the tablet around, showing a page full of Japanese characters. "See the title here?" She indicated the right spot, where I could see something that looked like chicken tracks to me, but hey, I don't read Japanese. "This is the name in Kanji, it literally means Morning Sun Newspaper, however the normal way it is spoken and written in English is Asahi Shimbun. It means the same, but just a different way of saying it" I nodded.

"Seems complex, but I suppose it makes sense to a Japanese speaker" She nodded.

"It does, if you learn Japanese it makes a lot more sense than English, partly because English has so many words from other languages in it, it's quite a language stew really" I nodded, then glanced at Gabriel.

"Well thanks for the coffee Mrs. Aoki, you've been a big help, especially with the impromptu language lesson" She smiled at us.

"It was my pleasure" I drained my coffee and was standing when Mrs. Aoki spoke. "Why the interest in the gardening company if I might ask?"

"They were a possible lead, but it isn't the right name" She looked at me.

"What name were you looking for" I looked over at Gabriel and he shrugged slightly, but reached into his jacket and pulled out his notebook, flipping it open.

"The company's we were looking for were Nihon Gardening, Takamura and Sons Painting and Sango Aquarium Maintenance" She nodded.

That's appropriate; Sango means coral in Japanese, another of those words that have different ways of being said" She paused. "What did you say was the other company was?" I looked up at her tone.

"Nihon Gardening" She frowned.

"Nihon means sun-origin, that's the literal translation. It's a very old name for Japan, it's usually taken to represent the place where the dawn happens and in northern Asia the first country to see the sunrise is Japan" Mrs. Aoki pursed her lips. "It's where the old imperial Japan got the idea for the Imperial emblem and flag, better known as the rising sun, back in the bad old days" She looked at us both.

"If you were looking for Nihon Gardening, well they were here, Nihon also means Rising Sun"


	30. Chapter 30

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**30 Rising Sun Gardening**

Jane's viewpoint

We'd headed back to the office and started digging into Nihon Gardening. Now we knew they were the likely link between all our victims, we turned the full weight of the LAPDs investigative resources onto them. One quick chat to Ana and the FBIs resources were available to us as well.

The privacy people would have a spasm if they truly realised just how much info we can access on a company or person even without a warrant. In addition to City records, company records and tax invoices plus the usual police records and the like, we can pull up employment records, immigration status, vehicle registrations, TSA files and a lot more besides. And all that's before we even started Google searches, looking for mentions in the media, which is where we found some useful background in the company's local paper, they'd done a series on successful local businesses, with Nihon Gardening one of the featured companies.

According to the article, which included an interview with the owner, Tony Ikeda, he was a fourth generation local, his great grandfather had fought with the US Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a Nisei unit, in Italy in the Second World War and come back a decorated veteran. His grandfather had started the company and his father had grown it before handing the reins over to the current generation five years ago. Tony Ikeda continued building the company and he'd expressed his hope that his son would take over the company in due course.

He didn't look the type to be working for the Yakuza, his financials were nothing special, they were making money, but he wasn't rich, he was slowly growing the company, ploughing most of the profits back into the company, obviously trying to set it up to hand over to his son in better shape than he'd got it.

Checking the police records was useful, while there weren't many things that popped up on our radar that were out of the ordinary, they'd been the usual interactions, some of his vehicles had been in traffic accidents over the years, two of which were caused by the company's drivers. His people had amassed the usual citizen's interactions with the police, parking fines, speeding tickets and traffic accidents mostly. One of the female employees, their receptionist at the time, had come to the police a few years back, she'd had problems with an ex-boyfriend who didn't like his new status but he'd backed off once the cops got involved.

Another employee's kid had been busted for possession of ecstasy tablets at a rave; there'd been a messy divorce involving the company accountant and her husband, police had been called twice to domestics involving them both in the lead up to moving it into court; there'd been a burglary at the company's offices about eighteen months ago where some portable electronics had been taken, the sort of thing a junkie would boost to fence for a quick fix, something that the investigating officer had noted in his report.

Within hours we'd amassed a sizeable amount of data about the company, its owner and his employees which in turn led us to social media searches on the people, god knows people put out so much stuff on Facebook or Twitter or whatever, things they sure as hell wouldn't ever tell the cops, not without a warrant anyway. Unfortunately it seemed a lot of his people were older folks, middle aged people who tended to have a lower social media profile than younger people who'd been practically born with a computer mouse in their hands. I looked at some of the stuff people posted and winced at it, idly I'd wondered if they'd regret it in later life, when their youthful oversharing came back to bite them on the ass.

Tired, I leaned back in my chair, my back cracking as I did, punishing me for five hours staring at files and into a computer screen, after all that I had nothing much to show. Finally leaning forward and deciding I needed a new coffee, I stood up, grabbed my mug and headed for the kitchen, finding Flynn there as well.

"Yo Flynn, out of the way man, it's not safe to stand between me and a caffeine fix" He turned to smile and stepped to one side, stirring his cup.

"Go for it Rizzoli, not sure this really qualifies as coffee though..." I grimaced, the instant in the kitchen may have contained caffeine but the taste was horrible, especially after drinking Maura's favoured Blue Mountain blend, let alone Ana's freshly brewed coffee, that girl knew her way round an espresso machine. I spooned some instant into the cup, added hot water, milk and sugar, stirred it with of those little wooden swizzle stick thingies and tasted it, pulling a face; yep, I was ruined.

"Tastes like crap but it's got caffeine so I suppose beggars can't be choosers" Flynn nodded, leaning back against the wall next to the fridge.

"Find anything useful" I shook my head.

"Nothing, everything looks pretty normal, nothing that stands out. What about you?" He pulled a face.

"Same. Just about to do background checks on a couple of new hires" I frowned, new hires...

"How new?"

"Three or four months, near enough" I nodded to myself as he turned and made his way back towards the squad room as I followed, we nodded to Gabriel who passed us, empty cup in hand, another one heading for a refill.

"Are they Japanese?" He glanced over and nodded.

"Yeah, about to get Ana to get the immigration records sent over" I thought it over for a few seconds, then looked over at him as I followed him back into the Murder Room.

"So, new arrivals eh?" He nodded again. I thought it over for a moment, before pausing at his desk as he sat down.

"Call me if anything pops up" He looked up curiously.

"Something you wanna share?"

"No, just ...maybe" I shook my head, the tiredness talking. "Call me, OK" He nodded and I made my way back to my own desk. For the next hour and a half I looked into the company's banking records, getting the feeling nothing particularly weird was going on, when Flynn called me back over to his desk.

"Couple of new employees came off the plane three months ago; I've got Ana chasing details from the Japanese Police"

"Something not look right?"

"These guys both started a few weeks before the first home invasions. I know it's thin but…" I nodded; cops don't get to be good detectives without listening to their instincts and their gut, even if in this case they support the wrong damned baseball team.

"But you got a feeling?" He nodded, leaning back in the chair as he walked me through his reasoning.

"Two new guys straight off the plane from Japan, pretty much walk right into a job with a company which we've tied to the site of all of the attacks, not long before the attacks start, sounds way too pat for me" I nodded, it was way too much to be just a coincidence, in fact…

"I'd give a lot to see Rising Sun's records of who worked each of the houses that got hit"

"As would I" I looked up to find Brenda standing there. I hadn't seen her walk up; I don't know how she does it, some kind of weird Deputy Chief sixth sense thing she's got going maybe but she always seemed to turn up just when we had something interesting. She turned to Flynn who'd sat up straight at her arrival and tilted her head to him.

"Lieutenant, would you kindly run me through what you might have?"

"Sure Chief. We have two Rising Sun Gardening employees who only arrived in country barely three months back. Within a week of arriving they were employed by the company as laborers. That was only a couple of weeks before the first home invasion took place" Brenda pursed her lips and nodded.

"Do we know anything about how they came to be employed by Rising Sun Gardening?" Flynn and I both shook our heads in unconscious synchronisation; Flynn saw it as he half smiled, glancing up at me before looking back at the Chief.

"Nothing yet Chief, but we've only just started" He frowned. "It's pretty thin" I looked across at Brenda.

"We're probably going to have to drag in Ikeda, Rising Sun's owner, sooner rather than later if this doesn't pan out" Brenda nodded slowly, chewing the corner of her lip as she though it through before looking up.

"Let's see if we can turn up anything on our two mystery employees, do they have names?" Flynn looked back down at his notes, stumbling slightly over the pronunciations, not that I'd be much better.

"Naoki Hasegawa and Masahiro Hyakuta" He shrugged. "I'm chasing images from DMV or Immigration"

"I can help you there" We looked up to see Ana walking our way, a folder in her hand. "Both our boy's arrived on false passports but their images were in the Japanese police's yakuza database" She smiled at Brenda. "Superintendent Genda really needs to be on our Christmas card list. He turned our request round almost immediately" Brenda nodded slowly.

'What did the good Superintendent find?"

"They've identified them as Haruki Otomo and Shusuke Arima. Both known members of the Inagawa-kaï" She opened the folder and pulled out two images, lower quality ones obviously printed up on her office printer, handing them to Brenda. Thanking Ana, she perused them for a moment before turning and walking over to the murder board and pinning them up on the board with magnets, joining the images of Abe and Homaru already there. Grabbing a whiteboard marker she turned to Ana.

"Which one is which?" The images had Japanese characters across the bottom; Ana provided the names, spelling them out as Brenda wrote them out next to each image, with Flynn then giving her the names they were using at Rising Sun. Finishing she capped the pen and turned with a flourish. "Lieutenant Flynn, Detective Rizzoli, would you be kind enough to track down our two suspects, where they live, who they've been hanging out with, the usual" We both nodded as she turned to her next victim.

"Agent Romanov, thank you for these images, could I ask you to please go through the images of the rest of the Rising Sun employees we've turned up and liaise with Superintendent Genda; could you prevail upon his good offices to see if any of them turn up in their records as well" Ana nodded as Brenda looked round at us all.

"Someone had to get these two gentlemen a job there, newly arrived and straight into a job. That requires someone's help" She pulled a face, her mouth twisted in little a moue of annoyance. "I can't imagine as Yakuza members in good standing that gardening makes up a large part of their resume"

We all nodded slowly, she was right.


	31. Chapter 31

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**31 Fun and Games**

Natalie's viewpoint

I walked in through the door a little after six; today had been a bit of a bear, too many meetings that weren't worth my time but that I couldn't get out of, plus several hours preparing performance appraisals for my team. They're pretty good mostly; a few people need to step up a bit though, something I'll make clear to them in the coming days. If they can't make the grade then they'll have to go, the job's too important to have people who aren't committed to providing their best 24/7. Given two people in particular aren't delivering the goods despite coaching and mentoring I'd be having meetings with each of them soon; they'd either shape up or ship out.

They weren't bad people, one was just not coping well with the pressure of turning out timely, top quality work day in day out, while the other was good but inclined to coast and was a bit work shy when they could get away with it, meaning other people had to pick up their slack. I'd be sad to see them go if that's what turned out to be necessary but given the job we did and how important it was, the LAPD needed the best team possible.

Ana wasn't home yet, she'd been kept back late chasing down some information for Major Crimes' home invasion case, I'd asked if I should hang back and wait for her but she'd told me to head home and that as a treat she'd promised to bring dinner home from that amazing African place we'd recently discovered to make up for being late, so we could eat and then cuddle up in front of the TV for a bit; Once Upon a Time was on tonight and I loved see just how bad Regina could be when she let her inner bitch out, after all who didn't occasionally wish they could say what they thought without care for the consequences, all the while looking stylish and fantastic.

For me, Lana Parilla absolutely aced the Evil Queen, not to mention all hot and sexy with it, I loved her. Ana thought she wasn't bad but had a thing for Ruby Red, the werewolf waitress; given how amazing Meghan Ory's legs were it was hardly surprising, the clothes she wore practically screamed '_look at me, drool over me, want me_'. One episode she'd worn head to toe skin-tight red, right down to red thigh boots, I swear Ana nearly had palpitations just watching Ruby as I teased her mercilessly. Once Upon a Time night was always fun, a de-stress night for us both.

I was tired and it'd probably be at least another hour before Ana got home, so I decided a good soak would be just the thing. I left a trail of clothes through the place on the way to the bath, too tired to worry about them now; I'd pick them up after my bath. To help relax I went looking for some bath bombs, sure we still had a few left I'd started searching through the drawers in the vanity when on opening the bottom one my eyes fell upon a forgotten treasure.

Laying there in the bottom drawer I saw our suction cup dildo, making a slow, delighted smile appear. We'd stashed it there when we'd had visitors a few weeks back; we hadn't wanted to traumatise Ana's boss Director Martinez and his wife when they came over for dinner, mind you they were both so stuffy they probably didn't need a toy, the broomsticks they both had shoved up their asses were probably more than enough. I eventually got the impression Martinez was mostly ok with us once he relaxed and enjoyed the night, but his wife Carol had worn a slight air of unease the whole time, as if she was worrying about her husband being around two attractive women, as stupid as that sounded given neither of us had any interest whatsoever in guys, least of all middle-aged, married ones.

I frowned, maybe it was just that she was uncomfortable with the fact that they were deep in lesbian territory, some women had no problems with lesbians and others did; I shrugged to myself, dismissing it, it was her problem, not mine.

I retrieved the dildo, which had lain there forgotten since we'd scrambled round, hurriedly getting the apartment cleaned up. I smiled at it, feeling its surprisingly weighty mass in my hand. It'd gotten plenty of use since we first got it, the nine inch length and even better the one and a half inch girth perfect for filling us both right up, I noticed myself smiling a little naughtily in the mirror as I let my mind roam over some of its uses.

The first time we'd used it had been the night Ana had brought it home; me bent over in the shower, Ana holding my butt cheeks apart as she guided the tip into my dripping core. The thought of it had kept me humming all day, she'd rung me at my desk early in the day and told me what we were going to do that night, making me squirm with the images she planted, I'd been so wet just thinking about it, the reality was even better.

My gasping groan was loud in the small, steamy bathroom back in our Seattle apartment as I felt it slide inside my pussy, gently stretching me out, seeing Ana move to kneel in front of me and looking up as I stood there bent over, seeing the wanton look in her eyes as she let me balance my hands on her shoulders to steady myself as I rocked back and forth on the toy stuck to the shower wall, my mouth dropping open as it slid ever deeper inside with each thrust, finally feeling it bottom out inside me, even as Ana reached her mouth up to kiss me, her fingers tweaking my hanging nipples...

Another night not long afterwards, I'd been on my knees, impaled on the upright dildo where it was stuck to the shower floor as Ana stood there, one leg braced over my shoulder against the wall as she buried her fist in my hair, guiding my tongue to exactly where she wanted it, right between my lover's hot, wet lips, our combined moans loud in the steamy room as we both rode our way to immensely satisfying climaxes.

I smirked as the memories came thick and fast now, the pair of us side by side on our knees, the dildo stuck to the shower glass, both of us sliding our tongues along its length, sharing it, taking turns to suck and lick it, all in the name of getting it 'nice and wet', as if we'd needed it lubed up given how much we were both turned on, helped by the fact that I was pumping two fingers of one hand deep inside my pussy and two from the other into Ana while my nasty, wicked lover had her right index finger inside her ass and her left index finger sliding in and out of mine, it'd been decadent and depraved and utterly delicious. I remembered we'd got so turned on, we'd never got to use it, bringing each other to a series of very satisfying orgasms with just our fingers.

Feeling my eyes widen and my jaw drop as Ana had demonstrated she could take the entire length of the toy into her mouth and throat, something I couldn't, no matter how hard I'd tried; looking back I'd been devastated that I couldn't do that too. Hearing Ana whispering to me that it was ok, there were other, even more wonderful things I could do with my mouth that were far more important to her, before we'd ended up in bed, I'd eaten her to three shattering orgasms in a row, leaving her completely wrecked, begging me to leave her alone till she could recover and return the favour, something I'd enjoyed as much as I had doing it to her in the first place.

Another time we'd ended up with Ana on her knees between my thighs, orally driving me to a spectacular orgasm while she'd ground herself back against the dildo where it was stuck to the bed head. I equally remembered the giggles the following morning when we woke up to see it hanging over our heads like some weird wall hanging.

The memories crowded in, so many good ones. I smiled, remembering Ana's moans as she had slid herself slowly, carefully, down onto the well-lubed toy, watching it disappear inch by inch into Ana's carefully prepared ass as I knelt behind her, waiting until my kinky, sexy agent was completely filled, eyes squeezed shut as she accustomed herself to the sensation, before I leaned forward, arms wrapped around her, fingers toying with Ana's straining nipples as I'd peppered kisses on her neck, both of us moving up and down slowly in unison as Ana gently rode the toy, her pace carefully quickening until she shuddered as the climax hit, safe in my arms.

Another memory came unbidden, on my knees as I took the toy into my mouth where it was stuck to the mirror, while Ana rode me from behind, her strap-on filling my pussy as surely as the other toy filled my mouth, the deliciously dirty feeling as she'd pounded me from behind hard, the tight grip of her hands on my hips dragging me back onto her had felt so good. I'd ended up with light bruises there the following morning but I hadn't really cared, a price I'd happily pay for the wonderful climax she'd driven me to.

Then we'd swapped positions and roles, I remembered the oh so satisfying moan I'd heard when I'd carefully bottomed out the strap-on inside her pussy, seeing Ana's eyes closed in bliss even as her lips reached the back of the toy, her hot breath fogging the mirror round the dildo's base, then slowly letting the full, wet length of the toy slide out from between her lips as she ground back against me. Holding her hips against me where she was bent over, pushing forward and wiggling my hips as the full length settled inside her, seeing the toy slide inside her mouth as I did; I was getting wet all over again just thinking about it.

We'd had so much fun that we'd got a second one, so we could both ride one; up and down as we faced each other, held each other safe in our arms, our hands and mouths wandering as we rode them together, coming in each others embrace.

I remembered one time I'd been kneeling on the shower floor, slowly riding up and down the toy's full length, Ana snuggled up against my back, moving in time with me on hers, feeling her slippery wet boobs rubbing up against my back as we rose and fell in unison, her mouth on my neck, turning my head for a kiss while reaching back between us to slip a finger inside her, as one of her hands dropped between my legs and did the same, till we'd both come almost together.

Unfortunately I'd broken one of them a couple of months back during a particularly nasty, wicked session.

Ana had convinced me to try double penetration, so after lots of preparation and plenty of lube, I'd carefully slid myself down onto both dildo's, the unique feeling of being so completely filled had taken my breath away as I'd ever so carefully slid myself down onto them, gasping at each new sensation, until I'd felt both entrances flare around the base of the dildos. I'd just sat there for a moment, getting used to the feelings running through me, before carefully rising up, Ana kneeling behind me, her knees on each side of my thighs, whispering in my ear, telling me how sexy I looked, how much it was turning her on to see me doing that as she helped me, slowly rising and falling, picking up the pace as I got used to the sensations, feeling I was in control, until Ana's knowing fingers found my clit and drove me utterly wild.

The overwhelming sensations of being so filled, together with her knowing exactly what was needed to get me off had sent me way, way over the edge, I'd thrashed so hard when I came I actually tore the suction cup off one of them, it'd been left still stuck to the floor, leaving Ana ruefully contemplating missing out on doing the same thing, not that I honestly cared right then, I'd come so hard I could barely tell what day it was, my boneless body held safely in her arms.

So many lovely memories, I smiled at my reflection, idly noting I was a little flushed, my nipples were rock hard and my panties were a little uncomfortable, I'd turned myself on just thinking about what we'd done. I smiled even wider at what was to come and turned to wander into the kitchen to give it a proper clean in the dishwasher, my tiredness forgotten, glancing at the clock and wishing Ana was home.

I think it's time to add a few more memories to the collection.


	32. Chapter 32

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**32 Taylor Troubles Part 2**

Maura's viewpoint

I was making my way up to visit Sharon; while I could have rung to confirm we were going running tomorrow morning, I had spent much of the day trapped behind my desk doing departmental paperwork and was looking to stretch my legs a little so a quick trip up to Force Investigation Division seemed a worthwhile use of my time.

Since taking up my role here in Los Angeles with its much larger compliment of colleagues and support staff I had found myself spending more time than I truly liked on administrative duties, giving me a valuable insight into Jane's often and loudly voiced distaste for paperwork and her excessive zeal in fleeing the office at the slightest opportunity in her desire to chase down even the slightest lead and avoid the administrative aspects of her role.

I exited the elevator to find the corridor empty; however I could faintly hear the sound of a male voice, obviously angry, coming from the direction of my destination, drawing a frown at the lack of decorum encountered on what was usually one of the quietest of headquarters's floors. Making my way towards my destination the sound grew significantly as I turned into the corridor passing the Force Investigation Division's squad room, to find most of Sharon's team there anxiously looking up the corridor, their faces carrying a mix of anger and shame, beyond them I could see Commander Russell Taylor of Robbery / Homicide standing there, shouting at Sharon.

Sharon was standing there, looking lovely in a charcoal grey Armani suit; I recognised it as one that she had bought a month or so earlier when we had been out shopping together. Her arms were crossed in a defensive pose, understandable as Commander Taylor was not only much larger but was also looming over her in an entirely too-threatening manner. Seeing Sharon's deputy Lieutenant Elliot standing there facing the confrontation uncertainly I walked over, he turned in surprise as I stepped up alongside him.

"Doctor Isles, um...what brings you up here" I understood his embarrassment, seeing his superior officer, someone he admired, being abused out in front of everyone; not just her squad either but others as well, heads had popped out of doors all down the corridor; it was a grievous insult to both Sharon and her people. I raised an eyebrow as the Commander's coarse voice filled the corridor.

"I don't give a damn what you and that goddamned dyke bitch you're fucking think you're doing, but you're not going to get away with this" Sharon was trying to be polite, though by the thin line her lips were making it was obvious that she was restraining herself with difficulty as she spoke.

"If you'd just calm down and listen..." If anything Commander Taylor leaned even more aggressively into her personal space in an attempt to intimidate her I assumed.

"What, listen to you try and justify your fuck ups, you've gone too far this time" Sharon leaned back and uncrossed her arms, placing them on her hips as her jaw took on a combative angle.

"I assure you Commander, I am only just starting" I looked across at Lieutenant Elliot, easily seeing the tension in his pose.

'How long has this been going on?" He glanced at me then back at the confrontation in front of us, keeping his voice low.

"A couple of minutes, Taylor's really angry, he's getting more and more personal" I nodded as the Commander's voice filled the corridor.

"Not once the union hears of this, you need taking down a peg and I'm going to enjoy doing just that" Sharon swiped her hand across the space between them.

"I answer to neither you nor the union" Her response was to have a finger shoved in her face as Taylor's voice dropped menacingly.

"We'll see about that, by the time I'm finished with you you'll be fucking screwed" I frowned at both his words and tone, wondering if I should intervene before his next words clinched it. "You and that Southern slut have gone too far this time and I'm gonna set it right" Gritting my teeth in anger, I squared my shoulders and walked forward, leaving Lieutenant Elliot behind.

"Uh Doctor Isles, I don't think that's a good idea..." Ignoring his obviously well meaning advice, I walked up the corridor and stepped up between both of them but off to one side, close enough to be seen. Both heads turned as I stopped, Taylor was quicker, his voice losing none of its venom.

"What the hell do you want?" I ignored him momentarily as Sharon spoke, surprise on her face.

"Doctor Isles, how can I help you?" I nodded politely at Sharon's words, pointedly not acknowledging Commander Taylor.

"Good afternoon Commanders, as a matter of fact you can" I turned to face Taylor. "You can start by moderating your tone. I could hear it all the way to the elevators" I tilted my head to regard the odious man. "That is of course unless making a public spectacle of yourself is one of your normal habits?" His ire was suddenly turned on me full force.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, coming in here and telling me what to do?" I tipped my head to the other side and regarded the man with something approaching contempt, he was a thuggish boor. With effort I kept my voice polite.

"Oh I am sorry Commander; I was on my way up here when I was confronted with your voice, clearly audible half a floor away. I thought you might have preferred to maintain some semblance of dignity, rather than behaving like a schoolyard bully"

"What gives you the right to act so goddamn high and mighty anyway?" I shrugged, unfazed by his contemptuous disdain, I'd faced worse for much of my life. The response I gave though was something that I had only been capable of much more recently, since Jane had entered my life.

"Well Commander, perhaps the fact that I was taught both manners and decorum, something that has obviously eluded you despite your years of service" He took a step towards me.

"Listen you, I don't have to take this shit from some fucking Boston reject, why don't you just fuck off out of here and leave this to the real cops" Sharon went to speak but I held up my hand, stopping her as I shot her a quick, apologetic look, before I looked back up into the Commander's angry visage.

"As a ranking civilian within the LAPD I do not take orders from you, in fact as stipulated in my contract with the department, the only person who can give me orders is Chief Pope, everyone else from Deputy Chief down makes polite requests, which I can choose to support at my discretion" I smiled politely as I continued. "If you have an issue with my performance you are feel free to take it up with Chief Pope if you so desire however Commander, do not under any circumstances whatsoever, presume to give me orders" He shook his head even as he sneered at me.

"Arrogant rug-munching bitches, what's the force coming to?" I stared up at him even as the thumb and little finger of my left hand started to rub together, something Jane has already told me is one of my 'tells' when stressed or angry, in this case it was both which drove me on.

"Your well known homophobia is neither appropriate nor wanted Commander" He shook his head.

"I should have known you dykes'd stick together, too many of you sicko's in the force these days" I let one eyebrow rise, as I glanced at Sharon, seeing the anger in her deep green eyes, before turning back to Taylor.

"Commander, my sexual preference is not an issue here; instead the issue is that you seem to be unable to demonstrate the manners and bearing expected of a senior officer within the LAPD. The fact that you are a sexist, misogynist lout unworthy of your uniform or your position is simply a further demonstration of how unfit you are for your place within the LAPD" He was suddenly looming over me, his coffee-tainted breath strong in my face.

"I don't give a shit who you think you are, no one speaks to me like that" I forced myself to remain calm as I stood my ground.

"Then I suspect you will be learning to make an exception for me" He stared at me through narrowed eyes, finally speaking barely loud enough for me to hear.

"This isn't over you pretentious dyke ho, you'll soon learn why people don't cross me" I desperately remained impassive in the face of his threat as he spoke again. "I'd watch your back bitch, cause one day soon I'm gonna be there when you least expect it" Sharon stepped forward and spoke in an obvious move to distract Taylor.

"Is there anything else Commander, or can we all get back to work" He looked at her for a moment and then let his eyes track back to me.

"No, we're done here" Taylor grinned in an entirely too nasty manner. 'For now" With that he turned and strode away, leaving us standing in the corridor. I was furious, to treat Sharon like that, especially in front of her fellow officers, it was quite frankly unforgivable, let alone his behavior with me. Sharon stood there for a moment, having removed her glasses she was pinching the bridge of her nose, her eyes closed, no doubt trying both to focus and stave off the onset of a probable tension headache. I glanced around, seeing officers and civilian employees of the department watching us, raising my ire at their gawking.

Angry, I drew myself up and stared around at the curious spectators, watching as most of them suddenly ducked back out of view as I did. One sergeant seemed impervious to the implied reprimand, prompting me to speak.

"Sergeant, no doubt you have work awaiting you" He glanced across to me as I raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps you might be good enough to turn your attention to that" Jane says that when I wish to I can be coldly intimidating; feeling that need, plus the anger inside me, I leveled him with a harsh stare, letting some of the anger I was still feeling bleed into my voice.

"Now!" He left.

Turning my attention back to Sharon I rested my hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right Sharon?" She sighed, dropping her head for a moment before looking back up at me.

"I will be, thank you Maura" I shook my head.

"Not all all, the man is a boor" I got a tentative smile.

"That's probably the politest thing anyone's said about him in a long time"

"What set him off?" I left the superfluous addendum 'this time' unsaid. Sharon shrugged eloquently.

"He apparently learned that I had recommended his division's officers be subject to requalification with weapons, together with the requirement that they complete a number of courses in firearms safety, weapons discipline and critical incident management" She shrugged lightly. "Given the number of incidents involving Robbery / Homicide Chief Pope had little option but to sign off on them" I looked at her and smiled.

"The fact that it was Commander Taylor's division of course had no bearing whatsoever on your decision" She smiled and we both knew the answer. Sharon slipped her glasses back on and waved in the direction of her Division, her natural manners surfacing.

"I'm sorry that you got dragged into that Maura, you didn't deserve that" I shrugged as I followed her into her squad room. "May I ask what brought you up our way?" I smiled.

"I was actually wondering if you might be available to go running tomorrow morning, that is if you are up for it?" She looked over her shoulder and nodded.

"I'd like that, though we'll have to start a little earlier" At my raised eyebrow she smiled, a little tiredly. "We have the Senior Officer's meeting tomorrow morning and given what's happened, I can't afford to be late, it'll be seen as a sign of weakness on my part" I nodded slowly, I had momentarily forgotten the meeting in the press of the events just past, my mind already considering the situation as we entered her office. Sitting I looked up.

"What do you plan to do in response to Commander Taylor's inexcusable behavior out there?" Sharon sat back, slumping slightly in her chair as she looked back at me.

"Nothing really, I can't really go running off to complain every time someone says something nasty about me, that's pretty much par for the course in FID"

"Sharon, he was not just abusive but intimidating and acting in a threatening manner towards you" I shook my head. "He has no right to treat you in such a manner, it is both bullying and harassment and you should not be subjected to such treatment" Sharon just smiled tiredly.

"I've had worse Maura, but thank you for your concern" She favored me with a lob-sided half-smile, half-grimace. "You learn to grow a thick skin in this job" She forced a wider smile as she changed the subject, letting me know that the subject was closed.

"What time should we meet and where?"

Leaving her office a few minutes later, I paused for a moment, standing waiting for an elevator, considering all that had happened; as the doors opened I stepped in, my finger hovering over the button for the morgue level, before changing and selecting the floor for Major Crimes.

Sharon may not feel there was anything she could do, however that did not mean I was willing to let things be, perhaps together Brenda and I could think of something.

She was my friend and as Jane often said, friends look out for friends.


	33. Chapter 33

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**33 Rising Sun Gardeners **

Jane's viewpoint

The team had spent two days following Hasegawa and Hyakuta, real names Otomo and Arima, all over Los Angeles, watching as they worked their way through over a dozen houses over both days, their job giving them a perfect opportunity to case a property; they could wander round the house, standing near windows to check inside a house and all with a perfectly valid reason to do so.

The majority of Rising Sun Gardening's clients fitted the profile of our victims perfectly, upper middle class Asian families, all doing well, but not wealthy enough for the extensive security systems that more wealthy folk would have, including security personnel. Watching them work from a distance through binoculars, Provenza and I rapidly came to the conclusion that if we didn't move fast, one of these houses would end up getting some uninvited guests sooner rather than later. A conclusion shared by Gabriel and Tao, who'd followed them on day two and spotted them taking surreptitious photos of several of the properties with their phones.

At the end of day one we'd followed them to a modest, nondescript apartment complex on West 159th Street in Gardena, only a few blocks from Larry Flynt's Hustler Casino. Calling back to the office got the team moving on checking it out; it turned out the place was a rental, they'd taken a lease on the place for six months, paid cash up front to mollify a landlord who was a little concerned they had no references, it turned out the landlord had inspected the place two weeks before to make sure everything was OK and found it to be generally clean and tidy, well as much so as you'd expect from two young guys living in a place would be.

Less than an hour later we watched them leaving again, trailling them at a distance to see their car parking in the Casino car park and them heading inside, Provenza following them in to find them both playing at the low stakes Pai Gow Poker tables, winning some, losing some and trying to hit on the Asian female dealers. According to him their luck with both was pretty poor. While he kept an eye on them I'd spoken to the casino's head of security, he'd confirmed after talking to his people that they'd been here before, almost regulars, something confirmed by the casino's CCTV tapes, playing Pai Gow exclusively. By the time they wrapped up it was almost eleven and I was beat, so we handed over to Sanchez and Flynn who'd cover the night shift.

By the end of day two Brenda had called in Tony Ikeda, Rising Sun Gardening's owner. We'd found nothing out of the ordinary in his background so Brenda decided she needed to talk to him, find out what he knew. He'd been horrified to learn we'd believed there was a connection between his company and the home invasions, he knew one of the family's personally and he'd played golf with the father at a charity golf day a few years ago. Watching him sit across the table from Brenda answering her questions I figured he was clean, something Brenda obviously agreed with as she changed tack after a few minutes and refocused on our suspects.

She asked him about his two new hires, to learn that he'd taken them on at the recommendation of his chief bookkeeper, a Judy Kimura. She'd apparently told him of two young guys recently arrived from Japan who were looking for a new start in America, they needed a job and were willing to work hard and weren't afraid to get their hands dirty doing that hard work. He'd taken them on as a favour to Kimura, who'd apparently worked for the company for a decade and a half, he didn't have a bad word to say about her, apparently she was as straight as they came, never a single hint of anything wrong for as long as she'd been with the company, first under his dad, then him.

Digging deeper we learned that it was after a recent trip to Japan with her elderly mom that Kimura had asked Ikeda if they had any job spots for a couple of young guys who had recently relocated from Japan. Ikeda also told us that Kimura had almost nothing to do with our two yakuza gardeners since then, she'd passed on the request that he take them on as a favour, once he had, she didn't really interact with them at all. They nodded politely if they passed her in the corridor but that was it. Ikeda had been honest, neither man was all that skilled but they weren't afraid of some hard work, they turned up on time, did their jobs reasonably well and he'd had no complaints from his clients about them. He'd shrugged and said that as far as he was concerned they'd turned out OK.

It was obvious after about an hour of questioning that he had no knowledge and wasn't involved in the home invasions, so we sent him on his way, cautioning Ikeda to say nothing to anyone as the investigation was ongoing, the team gathering around the murder board as we added what few new facts we had to the board. It became obvious that we needed more details to fill in the gaps, so I was despatched down to call on Ana to get her involved in chasing down what Kimura had been up to on her trips back to Japan.

Four hours later and we had a few more answers, we'd found that Kimura went back there at least once a year, taking her elderly mom back home to see her family. A quick call from Ana to Superintendent Genda had started an investigation over there which rapidly turned up some interesting facts. One of Kimura's cousins on her father's side was a 'face man' for the Yakuza, not a member of the clan, instead a trusted outsider, a lawyer who did a lot of quiet work for the Inagawa-kaï.

That set alarm bells going but a full-on background check of Kimura had turned up very little else; she was a never married only child who spent her time when not working looking after her elderly mother, her father having died five years earlier. She apparently took her mom home to Japan for a couple of weeks once a year to see her remaining family, she was pretty much your poster child for a law abiding citizen, her sole interactions with the police being several parking tickets and a speeding fine for being 4.5 miles per hour over the limit on a highway two years back, obviously she'd encountered one of those anal California Highway Patrol cops who'd been behind on making the quota for his shift. Even other cops loathed the CHP Nazi's, most didn't think they were real cops, in fact he standard LAPD joke was they were so good at riding their patrol bikes because they were so well balanced, with a big chip on each shoulder.

It looked like we'd have to get Kimura in for questioning, which could end up tipping our hand to the Yakuza if she was in fact not as innocent as she seemed. Flynn, Provenza, Sanchez and I were debating the pros and cons as Brenda refereed when we got a call from Tao, still out running surveillance with Gabriel; our suspects had gone home, got cleaned up and changed and were heading out, downtown towards Little Tokyo. Brenda had listened and nodded to Tao as they followed our suspects, advising him to keep us informed. I was all for heading down to Little Tokyo, but then patience was never one of my strong points, something Maura points out from time to time, well almost every day actually.

While they might be heading somewhere to meet up with other members of the clan, it was just as likely they were heading out to dinner or a club, so rather than rolling everyone out, Brenda advised us to let our families know we might be home a little late and then waited. Thirty minutes passed slowly, leaving me wondering what was the hold up, only to be reminded by Flynn that it was the ass end of peak hour and traffic jams were a fact of LA life for everyone, including Japanese gansters. We were still going back and forth, arguing the toss, when Brenda's phone rang, silencing everyone.

She didn't speak much, nodding amid "uh huh's" and 'right's", then suddenly looking up at the board, taking in all the information there before suddenly smiling, telling them we were on our way before ending the call. Spinning to look at us she suddenly smiled.

"It appears that our suspects have gone out to dinner" I frowned and I wasn't the only one, Provenza putting it into words.

"Why are we rolling out then?" The Chief just smiled at him, speaking as she sautered over to the big board, her eyes fixed on some point halfway down one side as Sanchez spoke.

"Maybe they just want dinner?" Brenda's smile just got wider as she glanced playfully over her shoulder at him as she tapped the board gently, the click of her nail loud in the quiet room.

"Quite possibly Detective, on the other hand what's the likelihood that of all the restaurants in Los Angeles they could choose to eat at they'd end up eating at Lotus Story?" I frowned for a second, before my eyes saw the name written on the board, connected to our mystery woman who'd worked at UPS, she'd given the restaurant's street addresses as her home address. I was already standing and grabbing my jacket as Brenda turned and smiled. "I'd have to say that's a little unlikely, and Mr Kurita did say the Inagawa do like using restaurants as covers for their activities" I nodded.

"Looks like Japanese food again"

Two hours later I was walking into the restaurant, ostensibly to pick up take out, but really to try and find our missing gardeners, we had the front and back doors covered but they hadn't emerged and we couldn't see them from the street so someone needed to head inside and check it out. I'd volunteered, I was bored and hungry so I'd looked up their menu online, relieved to see it was a wide range of Asian food rather than strictly Sushi which I hated, I'd explained my plan to Brenda who'd agreed, then got everyone else's order and called it in, waiting ten minutes before walking in. As expected I was told it wasn't ready yet, giving me plenty of time to stand around and look over the diners, not seeing either Otomo or Arima anywhere.

Looking round I asked where the ladies was, to be pointed towards the back of the place, not far from the entrance to the kitchen; walking over I checked it out but it was just a door opening onto a short corridor to a pair of doors marked male and female, glancing over my shoulder at the door behind me, I walked up to the gents, seeing the door wasn't locked and quickly ducked my head in, finding it empty. Walking back out, I took a different route back to the front, looking for another doorway out, finally seeing one in another corner of the room.

There was a screen which blocked the doorway from the direct view of the patrons, so I sucked in a breath and walked over, stepping behind the bamboo screen and opening the door, looking round. There was a set of steps to my right which led upstairs, obviously to rooms upstairs. There was also a hard-faced Asian guy standing on the stairs who looked up at me as I did, shaking his head.

"Private! No entry!" I just smiled and played dumb.

"Oh sorry, I was looking for the ladies" He was unimpressed, waving me back.

"Not here, other corner. Now leave" I held up my hands in the universal 'sorry' gesture.

"Yeah, no problem, sorry" I started to back out, but not before getting a look past him at the upper floor, it looked like it was apartments up there. What cinched it though was seeing another head appear at the top of the stairs, looking down, it was Arima.

Five minutes later I walked out with several bags of take out, wandering back around the corner to the van Brenda was running the surveillance from. Opening the door I hopped in and pulled the door closed behind me, sitting and opening the bag, reaching in to pull out her Kung Pao chicken and handing it over before speaking.

"OK, it looks like this is the place" Brenda took the take out container and some chopsticks with a raised eyebrow as I kept unpacking. "Apartments upstairs accessed from a set of stairs in the right rear corner, a guard on the stairs but it's definitely the right place, I saw Arima upstairs" Brenda nodded then turned, keying the mike and calling the rest of the team round to collect dinner. A couple of minutes later and the van was crowded with the team, all happily demolishing dinner, which was excellent. Finally Gabriel paused long enough to look over at Brenda.

"So what now Chief?" Brenda shrugged.

"We wrap up for the night, we can always find our two gardeners easy enough if we have to, but it's the top people we want and it looks like they may be in there" There were nods around the team as she continued. "So in the morning we call in DDA Hobbs and get a warrant and tomorrow night we come back here, hopefully we can wrap it up after they close, when the public's not around"

"Y'know Chief, I kinda hope we don't find anything" Brenda turned to look at Flynn, not saying anything; her raised eyebrow said it all. Flynn raised his hands in a 'I surrender' gesture. "We've only just found this place and I kinda don't wanna shut it down, this chicken curry is amazing"

There were groans and eye rolls all round but I noticed no one argued, we were all too busy eating.


	34. Chapter 34

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**34 Solidarity**

Pope's viewpoint

I wasn't looking forward to this morning's Senior Officers Meeting; there was a good chance it might get ugly if I didn't keep a firm grip on things.

Yesterday's spat between Raydor and Isles on one hand and Taylor on the other had rapidly done the rounds of the water cooler gossip circuit, making its way to me fairly quickly afterwards. I made sure I heard everything that went on, either through my personal assistant Belinda or others, knowing what was being said and gossiped about was an essential survival skill for a manager, one I'd learned the hard way a long time ago.

Right now all the gossip was about Taylor, the stupid S.O.B. had carried on like a fool, bad enough to run down a fellow senior officer and one of the Department's most senior civilians, but to do it in a public corridor, in his stupidity he'd gone and undermined all of the LAPD's senior officers.

Unfortunately unless Raydor made a formal complaint, which wasn't really likely as she knew others would see her as weak for doing so, there was little I could officially do. The same went for Isles as well, that wasn't her style at all, so my hands were officially tied, though I was planning to have a quiet, unofficial word with Taylor sometime soon about his lack of discretion. I may not be able to do much about his conduct with either woman but I could dress him down about his actions being unbecoming a senior officer of the LAPD.

I walked into the conference room to find it had mostly filled up, before I noticed something had changed. The various female members of the team normally sat around the room, scattered amongst the male members, given they were mostly good-looking women I hadn't heard too many complaints, today however that had changed.

The FBI liaison Romanov, Morrell from HR, Dearing from the media team, our ME Maura Isles and Andrea Hobbs from the District Attorney's office were all sitting in a row down one side of the table, with two empty seats between Dearing and Isles. As I made my way to the table I saw Captain Jefferies from Van Nuys Division ask about one of the empty seats, only to receive a smile and a head shake from Dearing. My eyes flicked around the room, in particular taking in Taylor sitting two thirds of the way down the opposite side of the table, he was frowning at the seating arrangements, his expression mirrored by several others around the table.

I was just sitting down when I picked up Brenda Johnson's distinctive Southern accent bidding the Gang Task Force's Commander Reynolds a good morning, turning slightly so I could see them walk in. Raydor was the first in the room and I saw her eyes widen as she took in the room and paused, obviously she hadn't known what the others had planned. Johnson though walked in right behind her and I spotted the slightest hint of a smile appear, it wasn't much, but I knew what to look for. She'd known, for all I knew it was her idea, it was just the sort of thing Johnson would do, especially for Raydor; she was certainly protective of her partner.

With a hand on Raydor's arm and a whispered word Johnson got her started again from where she'd paused, making her way down the table to take her place next to Dearing, getting a quite obviously warm welcome from all the other women as Johnson took the seat between Raydor and Isles, the group of seven women sitting as a solid block.

I looked down at my notes but was actually considering what had just occurred, they'd just sent an unmistakable message to every senior officer present; I nodded once to myself, the statement was clear, unequivocally throwing down the gauntlet, all of them versus Taylor. I wondered if Taylor was smart enough to realise what he was up against.

Looking up from my notes, I saw a number of people around the table glancing from the line up of women to Taylor and back again. More than a few had picked up on exactly what was being stated, it was up to each one to make a decision about which side to take.

Realising the room was waiting for me I welcomed everyone and got the meeting started with the latest 'words of wisdom' from the Mayor and his team. Occaisionally they'd surprise me with something insightful, but this wasn't one of those times, a suggestion that more police should attend high school's at the start and end of the day to 'try and stop delinquency'; as if. The last thing teenagers wanted was to be looked at like criminals and have squad cars waiting for them when they arrived and left school.

We had a Juvenile division that specialised in low key but effective policing at schools, mostly through undercover work and good contacts throughout the education system, they weren't as overt as a black and white at the gate, but they got the job done, trouble was they weren't as noticeable and the Mayor was coming up for re-election so he wanted a visible change he could point to as a policy he'd implemented, the fact that it did more harm than good was incidental. Politicians!

I normally didn't bother passing on the majority of their suggestions, most of them were idiotic. Like their recent one about getting rid of the mounted police division because horses were a 'ceremonial anachronism' in the 21st century. I'd rolled my eyes at that email, tell that to the people they'd found lost in the rugged terrain around Los Angeles, horses could get into places no vehicle could, a lot faster than officers on foot. They were also very useful for crowd control, intimidating to a potential troublemaker but not perceived as a threat by the public who'd never been on the receiving end of a mounted charge. No, the mounted division wasn't going anywhere, not on my watch.

Finishing my directives I started off reports from around the table as I watched the interactions, realising that the room was polarizing into three groups, one of them being Taylor and his close cronies Henley from Valley Operations, Marcus from Newton, Jefferson from Rampart and Garcia from Juvenile.

On the other side were the women, they'd made everyone aware they were sticking together, hardly a surprise as I'd heard enough gossip to know many of them were friends and socialised together. I wasn't aware Hobbs was a supporter though it didn't surprise me; especially given she had recently gotten involved with one of Ruiz's detectives, Mikki Mendoza. Taylor had made his opinions on lesbians very well known, 'rug muncher' and 'filthy dykes' being two of the more common descriptions he used, particularly since Romanov, Dearing, Isles and Rizzioli had come on board, it had got even worse since Raydor and Johnson had got together.

I was however surprised to see Candace Morrell sitting there though, she hadn't struck me as particularly close to the others; on the other hand Taylor was a sexist pig and I don't doubt Morrell had had more than her fair share of run ins with him before, he'd certainly gone out of his way to antagonize people, women especially.

The third group was everyone else; they would either make the choice to support one side or the other, though some of them would try to sit on the fence. I had to suppress a smile as I remembered a comment Johnson had made years ago about such people; something about how '_sitting on the fence was a good way to get an ass full of splinters_'.

Nodding at the appropriate points as each person spoke I tried to decide which side people would come down on.

Dearing had effectively networked the room; I'd heard a string of positive reports of her help to various divisions, building up a long list of grateful customers. Her partner Romanov had done the same, even more effectively that her predecessor, so lots of positive support generated there. Isles had been active as well; everyone who had come into contact with her had good things to say about her work, her work ethic and her skills. Andrea Hobbs had a good history with a number of the officers around the table and everyone here had worked with Morrell at one point or other, she was quiet but very good at her job. Then there was Raydor and Johnson, both had occasionally prickly personalities, mostly around their work, but both could be more than charming when they set their minds to it.

Collins from Tactical Response was a friend of both Johnson and Raydor so he was definitely in their court. Washington from Traffic, Reynolds from the Gang Task Force and Oats from Air Support would probably come down on their side. Turner from Harbor and Marks from the Academy would likely too as would Deputy Kelso from Narcotics.

Ruiz from SIS would probably try and sit it out, though that might be easier said than done, same for several others who'd probably try and ride out any coming storm, people like Jefferies and Smith and Henderson and Ramirez and Chen.

I caught Taylor looking round, obviously counting heads too, the expression on his face suggesting he didn't like the numbers he was getting, much to my carefully hidden amusement. I thought that over for a moment, from long practice I was able to compartmentalise, one part of my mind thinking over what I'd learned while the other listened to each officer as they made their reports.

Taylor was very quiet, no snarky asides to any of the women while they gave their contributions, that in itself told me just how rattled he was, something that I took an inordinate amount of carefully hidden pleasure in, he'd always been a pompous ass, waving his union and political connections in my face whenever he'd overstepped the mark to avoid any comeback, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying watching the realisation dawn on him that he may have gone too far this time.

The meeting finally stumbled to a close, with Taylor one of the first out the door, I noticed all seven women remained seated, chatting quietly amongst themselves, as the room slowly emptied, another not so subtle message to everyone else that they were in this together. I grabbed Kelso for a moment to discuss one of his operations, by the time we'd finished the room was almost empty as I turned to regard them. Isles was the first to notice I was watching them, looking across and smiling at me, I had to admit she was really stunning, her partner Rizzoli was a very lucky woman, but then they were all beautiful in their own quite separate ways, even the older ones, Morrell, Johnson and Raydor were quite attractive woman.

"May we help you Chief?" It was Morrell. I nodded slowly, catching each of them with a glance.

"It depends; will I have to clean up the blood after whatever you plan to do to Taylor?" Several of them smirked openly, though Hobbs and Morrell tried unsuccessfully to hide it. Johnson glanced at Raydor, then back to me.

"Why Will, whatever makes you think we'd want anything bad to happen to the good Commander?" I snorted at her obviously faked politeness.

"Perhaps because he's an arrogant, misogynist pain in the ass" Romanov smiled.

"A not incorrect description of the man" Her partner Dearing smiled agreeably.

"Perhaps a little understated, all things considered, but accurate" I shook my head and turned back to Johnson.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" She smiled; it wasn't a particularly reassuring one.

"If it was up to me, I'd quite happily put a bullet between his eyes then feed the body to the sharks" I could tell she wasn't really joking either, making me wince before she went on. "Unfortunately Miss Morell here has kindly pointed out that might be cause for an adverse performance appraisal on my record" Candace nodded.

"Unfortunately yes, it may negatively affect your promotional prospects Chief" Isles smiled and nodded once.

"Yes, a propensity to murder your fellow senior officers may be frowned upon" Dearing smiled gently.

"Depends on the officer being murdered I suppose" I frowned at their comments, they weren't helping...

"All joking aside..." I looked at Raydor. "...what do you plan to do to him" She shrugged.

"If he leaves us all alone and this incident isn't repeated then nothing" I raised an eyebrow at her, getting a frown in return. "My position is such that I can't be seen running to you or Ms Morell here every time something nasty happens, I'd get nothing done and worse, I'd been seen as a laughing stock, weak" Raydor shrugged again. "My role as head of Force Investigation requires me to be respected, if not a little feared, something that making regular complaints about harassment would undermine" I nodded, it had been what I'd suspected. I looked across at Isles.

"And you Doctor?" She smiled politely.

"I will not provide that... individual with the satisfaction of knowing that I consider him worthy of a formal complaint" She pushed her hair back behind her ear. "That is, if it is only a one time occurrence" I nodded once, then pushed.

"And if it does happen again?" They glanced at each other before Raydor turned to regard me serenely.

"Then I will file a formal charge of harassment" I nodded as Morrell leaned forward.

"Something I will take an unprofessional but inordinate amount of pleasure in investigating" Isles nodded at her words then spoke.

"I am sure we would all be delighted to appear as witnesses for the Commander's character at the inquiry" Johnson snorted at that.

"Lack of character that is" There were smiles all-round the table before Hobbs leaned forward, her hands clasped in front of her on the table top.

"And I for one would be more than happy to act as acting counsel in any formal disciplinary proceedings that follow" She shrugged and sat back, her voice reflective. "I'd even do it pro bono…" She smiled up at me. "Strictly for the public good of course" I smiled or at least I tried to, as a creeping sense of doom crawled up my spine.

"Of course" I turned my head as Dearing spoke up.

"And I can guarantee that there will be any number of female members of the media who would be absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to explain the nature of their dealings with Taylor when he was media liaison" She gave me a smile though it wasn't a reassuring one at all. "They'd make impressive character witnesses" It dawned on me that Taylor had managed to make an enemy of every woman here; I doubt he could have picked a more formidable group of enemies if he'd tried.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that" Hobbs nodded.

"We can all hope, however from my own run-ins with the man, I'm sure he can't control himself, so you will probably need to consider what happens the next time he does something…foolish" I looked at her, nodding slowly as I realised just how widely Taylor's bad habits had extended outside the department. Hobbs looked up at me and continued. "I should warn you that if he was to comport himself with me as he did with Commander Raydor, I couldn't be certain that there wouldn't be retribution" She frowned. "I'd try and restrain Mikki but she does have a temper" I nodded, Mendoza did have a reputation as a bit of a hot head, plus she was obviously serious about Hobbs. Isles nodded as well.

"I regret to say that a similar situation exists with Jane, I have not told Jane of what transpired yesterday precisely for that reason however should there be a reoccurance then Jane would quite certainly seek out Commander Taylor to make her extreme displeasure with his actions very well known, particularly should he repeat the threats to my well being that he made yesterday" I nodded, seeing Isles looking at Dearing, who in turn just glanced at Romanov who nodded and shrugged.

"OK, I won't say anything to Jane either" She looked up at me and for a moment her eyes were cold, pitiless. "If Taylor is suicidal enough to threaten Nat's safety and well-being, or do the same to Maura in my hearing, there will be severe consequences" I nodded as she sat back, realising she wasn't posturing, just stating a fact.

Johnson glanced at Raydor and nodded once, before leaning forward.

"If Taylor threatens Sharon, or Maura or anyone else here again, then I will do everything in my power to ruin the man, see him run out of the force and broken" She looked up at me and smiled, then tipped her head to Morrell. "And an adverse performance appraisal be damned" Morell nodded slowly.

"I might be inclined to overlook the indulgence Chief, just this once" There were shared cool smiles along the line of women as I realised a hand grenade had just been tossed into my lap with the pin barely holding on. I nodded, taking in the quiet determination of all seven women and realising I had to have that talk with Taylor sooner rather than later, for everyone's sake, not least my own.

"Let us firmly hope it doesn't come to that" Romanov looked round the group then shrugged.

"Same here, but Taylor's an A grade idiot, he can't help himself" She grimaced then looked back at me "He'll try something on sooner or later, you can bet on it"

I nodded grimly, she was probably right.


	35. Chapter 35

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**35 The Raid Part 1**

Gabriel's viewpoint

With the warrant in our hands, we'd gathered around the corner from the restaurant again while we waited for it to close, no one wanted to try and take down a team of cold-blooded killers with bystanders and potential hostages around. It had taken a while but the last of the staff had left, though it was obvious from the lights on the first floor that people were still inside. We knew it wasn't Otomo and Arima; the gardeners were sitting at their local casino, playing Pai Gow again under the casino's surveillance, two less complications to worry about.

We made our way up to the door, while Flynn, Provenza and two uniformed cops covered the rear. The Chief, Sanchez, Tao, Rizzoli and I took the front, with two uniforms there to cover the front while we did the take down. I can't say I was surprised to find we'd been joined by Ana Romanov; she'd just turned up in the squad room and mentioned that given all the federal aspects to the case, it'd help to have a Fed on site. We'd all exchanged a few amused glances but no one called her on it, she'd kinda become one of the team, especially after putting it on the line right besides us when we'd taken down the sniper a few months back, the Chief had simply raised an amused eyebrow before carrying on with the briefing.

The Chief led us to the front door, motioning us to stay quiet as she pulled a set of lock pick tools out of her windcheater pocket and set to work. I'd seen her do this before and shook my head a little, for all the Southern, 'aw shucks' demeanor she affects, the Chief was a hell of a lot more than most people would ever guess. She'd proved that with all the perps she'd put away, most had seen the looks and the accent and written her off, not realising what she was capable of until the cuffs were being put on them.

Less than a minute later there was a soft click as the door unlocked and we quietly filed inside, moving carefully to avoid making noise. There was enough light bleeding in from outside through the front widows to give us a clear enough view as we slowly moved round and between the tables. Rizzoli had been inside before so she took point, leading us towards the doorway leading upstairs.

She indicated the door, there behind a screen as we nodded, then pointed at herself and raised her index finger, indicating she'd be first through the door, just what I'd expect from her, she'd always try and be first, not that she was being a hero, she just knew she was faster and more accurate than most of us. She then pointed at Sanchez and raised two fingers, then me and three, setting up the entry order.

We glanced at the Chief who nodded, though I saw Ana frowning, she was probably thinking she should go first, she'd had the house to house experience in Iraq, but this was the Chief's show. Rizzoli glanced round at us then stepped up to the door, reaching for the door know with her right hand, her pistol in her left, Carefully swinging it open she leaned in far enough to glance round the corner, then ducked back.

"Empty" her whispered voice was low and harsh with the stress we were all feeling as, with a nod she stepped through and quietly moved inside as Sanchez followed, then me. There was a small area before the stairs, we could see light coming from upstairs as Rizzoli carefully started making her way upwards, pistol held in both hands aimed to the top of the stairs. In the quiet all I could hear was our soft breathing and the sounds of male voices from up the stairs, couldn't tell how many, then a female voice laughed, were they having a party up there? Rizzoli moved over to the left side of the stairs making it harder for her to be seen as she quietly stepped up again. I moved to the right as Sanchez stayed in the middle, it meant we each had a clear line of fire if we needed it, no one blocking anyone else.

Rizzoli was about half way up when there was a shockingly loud creak under her foot, we all froze as there was a sudden stilling of voices up above, then a single voice speaking loudly. There was a quick exchange of glances and a universal, unspoken '_oh fuck_' from everyone before Rizzoli swallowed and took another step, just as a man appeared at the top of the step. I could see his eyes widen almost comically, before he started shouting and ducked back.

I could see Rizzoli's face tighten and she raced up the stairs, even as we could hear a loud male voice yelling something I couldn't understand, not that I needed to. I clenched my teeth and took after Sanchez who had followed Rizzoli up to the top of the stairs to find her already moving carefully down the corridor, pistol swinging to cover doorways, I could hear shouting from up ahead, before an Asian guy swung out into the corridor, a handgun already turning our way as I called it.

"Gun!" There was a shouted chorus of "LAPD" and "Gun" and "Police" as the guy's pistol lifted and fired, even as Rizzoli, Sanchez and I all shot back. I saw his body jerk back as we hit him, before he fell gracelessly into the doorway in that particularly boneless way that told you he was dead before his body hit the ground, hardly surprising given Rizzoli and Sanchez are very good shots and I was sure I'd hit him too, even as Sanchez tumbled backwards past me and right into the people behind us, Tao and the Chief grabbing him, his groan soft after the gunfire. There was a second's pause, before Rizzoli was moving again, Romanov squeezing past us and taking off after her.

I was torn for a moment, looking down at Julio, seeing his eyes squeezed shut, face twisted in pain, seeing the Chief's hand's searching for blood even as she asked where he was shot, Mike Tao was already on the radio to dispatch calling for a bus before the Chief glanced up at me and tossed her head.

"Go, we got this" I took off after Rizzoli and Romanov, seeing they'd already checked out the room the gunman had come from and moved on down the corridor, even as I heard the sound of the uniforms downstairs racing to the stairs plus Provenza's voice on the radio, calling for an update. I moved up to the next door to join them as Romanov nodded and Jane kicked it in, Stepping through the door and looking round the darkened room, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, turning to see two figures backlit from the window behind them and the light filtering in from the door.

"Police, don't move!" I could make out two figures, one much larger than the other, I recognised the big one as Homoru before the smaller figure was suddenly shoved at me, the woman cannoning into me as she stumbled, clutching me to her and dragging me down with her as I desperately tried to keep my gun out of the way. I heard the sound of breaking glass, frantically looking round as first Rizzoli and then Romanov leapt over us and out the same window the big guy had gone out of. Climbing to my feet I dragged the woman upright, to see she was a blonde in skimpy lingerie. She looked me up and down.

"Who the hell are you?" I shrugged.

"LAPD" She grimaced as she looked down and dusted herself off

"Figures" She frowned. "Couldn't you have at least waited until he paid me?" I suddenly realised who she was, a working girl. I was about to check the window to see where everyone had gone but before I could do anything there was a fusillade of shots from outside the room, followed by a howling scream, I saw the woman dive into a corner behind the bed, not a bad idea in retrospect.

"Stay there and don't move" her voice was low but certain.

"No shit Sherlock" I turned and moved back to the door and chanced a quick look round, seeing another Asian guy lying on the floor, hands wrapped around his thigh as he whimpered, a pistol dropped a few feet from him where it was now laying between the Chief's feet. What did capture my attention though was the scene just beyond him, a guy who looked like the Yakuza boss, Abe, was standing there with a pistol held to the head of another half-dressed blonde woman, maybe another hooker, using her as a shield.

The Chief and Tao had guns drawn on him, both calling for him to drop the weapon and let the woman go. The guy shook his head and spoke.

"You will get out of my way and let me pass or this woman dies" The Chief's voice was as steady as her pistol.

"That is not going to happen" Her pistol moved slightly, probably drawing a bead on Abe's head. "You put the gun down and let the woman go and no one gets hurt, least of all you" I tried to line him up, but I didn't have a particularly clear shot, the Chief and Tao probably had a better one, even as Abe spoke, his hand around the woman's throat,

"You will not risk the woman's life" The Chief didn't move, her gun unwavering.

"You let her go and surrender and take your chances with the US Justice system or you try to walk out of here and you will be shot dead where you stand" I frowned, she was pushing him real hard, I wondered if Abe thought she was bluffing, if so he was wrong.

"You will shoot me either way, this way I have a bargaining chip" Brenda didn't move.

"What you have is another charge on your docket, taking a hostage will add a lot more years to an already long rap sheet" Abe shook his head.

"You will step back and let me through, or she dies" To back up the threat he ground the gun into the woman's cheek, eliciting a terrified yelp from her as the Chief spoke again, her voice firm and cold.

"You let her go and we all walk out of here alive. Try and use her as a shield and all you'll do is wind up dead" I heard a soft groan and looked back up the corridor to see Sanchez lying there with a uniformed cop bending over him, the other cop was standing there with his pistol out, even though Mike and Brenda were blocking the best shot. I looked back up the corridor, to see Mike was moving to the side of the corridor, making Abe have to split his attention, even as The Chief stood there, unmoving, staring over the sights at Abe.

"How do I know you won't shoot me if I let her go?"

"You don't, but I give you my word, you let her go and drop the weapon and no one will shoot"

"No one will shoot me trying to escape?" Brenda shook her head once even as I rolled my eyes at his statement, he must have watched too many bad movies.

"You will not be harmed if, IF you put the gun down and let her go" She paused then continued. "You have my word" Abe looked back at her across the ten feet or so of space between them.

"And you are?"

"Deputy Chief Johnson, LAPD"

Abe and the Chief had a bit of a stare down that must have gone on for ten or fifteen seconds before Abe suddenly held the gun away from the woman, flicked the safety on and leant over, placing the gun on the floor. He straightened up and released the woman, who took a step forward, her hand coming up to her cheek where the pistol had been jammed into her as I saw her expression change, before she turned and lunged at him, fingernails clawing for his eyes. Mike and I jumped in and helped pull her off, getting a few scratches myself for my trouble while the Chief cuffed Abe. He had some scratches on his face but was in better shape than Sanchez so I wasn't particularly concerned for his welfare.

Mike moved the woman into another room as I checked on Sanchez, he'd been hit in the vest at close range, he was sore and sorry and his chest was a mass of bruises, but the vest had done it's job, stopping the bullet and keeping him alive.

In another minute the corridor was full of people, Flynn and Provenza and a bunch of uniforms who helped clear the floor finding no one else, then a couple of EMTs to take care of Sanchez and the Yakuza guy with the bullet in his leg. The Chief watched as Abe was led away, turning to Buzz and telling him to film everything for our investigation and for the inevitable OIS inquiry into the shooting. It couldn't have been more than a minute or two and then she turned to look at us.

"Good job everyone" She frowned and looked around. "Where exactly is Detective Rizzoli…" Her frown deepened. "…and Special Agent Romanov?" I felt my face heat up as I'd gotten distracted by the stand off with Abe. I turned, looking round and through the open door, seeing the broken window again. I waved in its direction as I spoke.

"Uh Chief…" She turned to look at me. "They went that way"


	36. Chapter 36

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**36 The Raid Part 2**

Jane's viewpoint

I saw Homoru smash his way out through the window and before I consciously knew what I was doing I'd vaulted Gabriel and in three steps was leaping out the window after him.

Ever heard the expression look before you leap? Yeah, that was me. I found myself in mid-air a floor up sailing across the alley, just enough time to think this mightn't have been the best idea I'd had recently, right before I impacted with a painful thud on a fire escape railing on the other side, the pain proving I'd probably been right.

I could see Homoru already climbing up the fire escape and was about to call on him to stop when I heard a despairing cry of 'oh shit' right behind me, before Ana crashed into me, the impact partly driving the wind from me as I frantically grabbed for her and held tight while she scrabbled for a hold, dangling in mid-air for a second before she hauled herself up next to me. I looked across at her and scowled.

"Watch where the fuck you're going next time" She nodded then gave me a shit-eating grin.

"At least I had something soft to break the impact"

I shook my head, muttering something foul under my breath as I scrabbled over the railing and headed off up after Homoru, hearing Ana right behind me. Climbing to the top I could see him silhouetted against the city's glare-lighted sky as he took a running leap onto the next roof, dropping out of sight. Cursing under my breath I swung up onto the roof and took after him, hearing Ana's racing steps right behind me. Reaching the edge I saw him already jumping to the next roof along even as I leapt down onto the lower roof. We crossed after him onto the next building to see him turn and start climbing down a fire escape, we were starting to catch him up, arriving at the top of the fire escape in time to see him drop to the ground, turn left and start running along an alley. Ana swung onto the fire escape and slid down it while I turned and ran along the roof, pacing him as he ran. He turned around the back of the building as the alley bent, only to stop as he saw a six foot high chain-wire fence in front of him. As Homoru looked around I pulled up for a moment, peering over the side of the building before seeing a closed industrial dumpster below me, close enough to jump down onto it.

I landed with a hollow boom and fell to my knees before pushing up and off, the sound loud enough to make Homoru spin to see me, then whirl back and take a run towards the fence, obviously intending to leap up and climb over. He made his jump just as I hit the ground and rolled to my feet, grabbing for his legs as he started to leverage his way over the fence. I grabbed on with both hands and yanked as hard as I could, spinning away to give me more force and tearing him off the fence to tumble to the ground next to me. I rolled back to my feet and spoke as Homoru also stood.

"LAPD, you're under arrest" He just shook his head as Ana appeared round the corner of the building behind him, before Homoru turned and raised his hands above his head. I grabbed for my cuffs and stepped up, grabbing his right hand and pulling it down as I brought up the cuff, just as I did he spun, snatching at my wrist and pulling it to one side, his other hand dropping out of sight as he yanked me around, opening me up as I saw the knife blade reflect in the streetlight, hearing Ana catch it too, her cry of 'Knife!' loud in the night.

He was fast, damned fast; the blade skittered across the vest I was wearing, slicing the outer layer across the stomach open but no further thank god as I frantically pulled back, opening some space between us. He had other ideas though, coming after me and slashing the knife, a wickedly sharp straight blade, across my throat or where my throat would have been if I hadn't frantically ducked down and to one side, god he was fast.

I remembered making the note in his file after watching him on that video tape. '_Subject appears to be capable with knives_'. I was already mentally editing that particular line to '_very good with knives_'.

He slashed again, forcing me back again, the blade catching what light there was in the alley, drawing my eye as he moved forward again; I went for my gun, drawing it as he slashed on the backstroke, my dodge suddenly coming to a stop as my back hit the chain-wire fence, Homoru took advantage of my distraction, his foot coming up in a decent spinning kick to collect my arm, the pistol flying away as he connected. I should have been looking for it but I was too busy ducking as he continued the spin right round, slashing across me with the knife, the tip scoring across the vest, if I hadn't been wearing it he'd have just sliced both breasts wide open.

Forgetting the gun in the face of more pressing problems, I dropped into a stance then exploded out with a forearm smash into his ribs, hopefully cracking them, maybe worse if I was lucky. He wasn't a weakling though; he shrugged it off and grabbed my wrist, trying to hold me in place as he swung the knife back. I blocked the knife with a forearm cross, even as I drove my knee up into his side, unfortunately not the same side I'd hit, but it was enough, he stumbled, swinging me round even as I spotted Ana with her gun out, trying to get a clear line of sight but we were moving round each other in a wild melee, all too easy for her to hit the wrong person. With a curse she shoved it back into her holster as we spun twice more, my hand holding his knife off to one side, his other arm blocking my strike, I was starting to feel his strength coming into play when he suddenly cried out and fell to one side, dropping to one knee as I saw Ana appear behind him, recovering from the wicked snap kick she'd just delivered to his kidneys. Given the pain I could see in Homoru's face he'd probably be pissing blood for days, as Ana spoke.

"Drop the weapon, you're under arrest" He lunged off the ground at her, blade first as she frantically dodged, the blade passing right through where she'd just been as she backpedalled, it gave me an opening though as I took the opportunity to drop into a crouch, balancing myself on hands and one knee as I swept my foot into his knee, feeling the solid connection as it hit and getting a quick sense of satisfaction at his cry of pain, he was tough though, he shrugged it off, turning and delivering a powerful kick that collected me in the side, I wound up slamming into the wire fence, fortunately the vest spread the shock but my ribs still hurt, they'd probably be broken if I hadn't been wearing it.

Ana went to intervene, but Homoru was faster than he looked, swinging round and stabbing straight at her chest, forcing her to frantically twist to one side as the knife tore open the side of her vest. In return she smashed her elbow into his side, the same spot I'd hit him earlier, driving a pained gasp out of him, before he did something I thought only happened in the movies, he tossed his knife from one hand to the other, closer one then stabbed backwards viciously, the blade impacting directly into her chest, the vest stopped it but it must have still hurt from the impact as she took a quick step back, even as I mentally amended the file again. '_Make that extremely good with knives_'.

Homoru tried to capitalise on her withdrawal, slashing towards her unprotected face and forcing her to dodge defensively. Unfortunately for him, his concentration on her allowed me to step up and deliver a palm smash right into the same side I'd hit before, his deep grunt of pain letting me know I'd connected hard. Unfortunately not hard enough, he was both tough and quick, I saw the back-handed fist coming my way but not in time to properly block it, the strength behind it enough to send me sprawling to the road even though I'd tried to ride it. He didn't follow up though, turning and slashing at Ana again as the immediate threat then, as she dodged, he sidestepped and stamped sideways into her leg.

His side stomp hit Ana in the knee, she'd seen it coming soon enough to allow her to ride the blow but her agonized gasp still told me how much it had hurt. She hopped backwards to avoid another slash, he wasn't letting up, I had to do something. I pushed myself up and lunged forward, grabbing his right hand, the one without the knife, in my right, pulling it across me as I drove my elbow down into his shoulder, feeling a shooting pain up my arm even as he cried out, I definitely felt something give there though. I fell back as he stabbed back at me, catching the vest even as I back-peddled.

He spun again even as I dropped into a defensive crouch, his right arm obviously not moving right, slower maybe, hopefully I'd broken something. Nothing wrong with his left arm though, he was still dangerously fast with it, I was hard pressed to stay out of the way of that blade, fending off one slash, trying to get a strike in only to have to abort as he turned the slash into a thrust, aiming for my eyes. I was backing up again, looking for an opening, wondering where Ana was.

"Uh, a little help here?" I didn't hear anything, when suddenly she appeared over his left shoulder, her left hand grabbing his wrist on the backswing as her right shoulder swung back. I knew what she was going to do even before she did, watching as she drove the heel of her palm right into Homoru's shoulder joint as she wrenched at his wrist with her other hand, the shoulder dislocating with an almost audible wrench as Homoru screamed. Ana was still holding his knife hand as I stepped forward and smashed the edge of my hand across the wrist, the knife flying out of his suddenly weakened grip as he dropped to his knees.

In one of those weird time slows down moments, I watched the knife spin through the air, scattering reflected street light as it did, to land with a metallic tinkle in the shadows. Turning I saw Ana reaching for her cuffs as Homoru's hand, the one out of sight beneath him, emerged with another blade, this one the reverse curved blade I'd seen him use when he'd sliced open that father's throat on camera. '_Oh no, not again_' I thought, time to stop this.

Gritting my teeth I stepped forward and stamped down hard with my heel, putting all my power and my full weight behind it as I slammed it down on his left arm, his wrist smashing into the concrete, I knew it had shattered from the feel under my foot, even before I saw the weird angle it was sitting. The knife clattered away from his suddenly useless fingers, even as I recovered and bounced back, ready to strike again. Homoru started reaching out for the knife with his hand when there was a sudden cold metal feeling at the back of his neck, followed by a click, loud in the quiet alley as she flicked the safety off on her Glock, Ana's voice was flat.

"Keep going, given how much my knee's hurting right now I'm more than willing to pull the trigger" There was silence for a moment, Homoru's outstretched hand only inches from the knife, before he carefully withdrew it and gingerly lifted both hands. I reached out and grabbed her proffered handcuffs, cuffing both wrists, not particularly carefully in the case of his shattered one, I was going to be a mass of bruises and Maura was going to give me hell about it, so his comfort wasn't a particular priority right now.

I retrieved my cuffs and pistol as Ana dragged him to his feet, before we each took an arm and led him back towards the restaurant, offloading him to the first uniforms we found, he was moving stiffly, limping badly, our hits had obviously done some real damage.

I leaned back against the wall, cataloguing my aches and pains as I watched the cops bundling Homoru into the back of an ambulance for the EMTs to check over; none too carefully it seemed, based on the winces and gasps he was giving out.

I looked over to Ana to see her looking back at me, we didn't have to say anything, her nod and my answering one said it all. I was sore and sorry and I was going to be a mass of bruises but we'd done it, it was over.


	37. Chapter 37

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**37 The Queen's Gambit**

Sharon's viewpoint

Brenda needed my help. They'd managed to roll up the heads of the home invasion crew they'd been chasing for several weeks now, unfortunately while that had gone smoothly enough all things considered, it had involved one Yakuza shot dead and another having to have a slug dug out of his leg, meaning it had been an OIS investigation. As per the protocols we'd introduced when Brenda and I had first got together, I'd stepped back and let Lieutenant Elliot run the case on my side, with Brenda's Lieutenant Flynn running it on the Major Crimes' side, given Mike Tao had been one of the officers doing the shooting.

The investigation itself was pretty open and shut, Jane Rizzoli and Julio Sanchez had fired the fatal shots in an exchange that had seen Sanchez take a shot to the chest, fortunately the vest he'd been wearing had kept him alive, sore and sorry but alive. The second shooting had involved Tao shooting the suspect in the thigh as he'd aimed a pistol at the Major Crimes team, Elliot had assured me the investigation would be wrapped up shortly, it was pretty open and shut and the cooperation of the Major Crimes' team had been exemplary, mostly thanks to Brenda's insistence that they play ball. I sighed quietly, if only every division was so professional, or at least as loyal to their boss…

Unfortunately one of the primary suspects had fled the scene and when Jane and Ana had gone after him he'd fought back and they'd been forced to subdue the Yakuza's brutish, lethal enforcer the old-fashioned way. He'd apparently not gone quietly, as the numerous cuts and bruses they'd received had attested, but in subduing him they'd given far better than they'd got. Sitting in Brenda's office, running my eyes down the list of injuries he'd sustained I felt my eyebrows rise, if I didn't know better I would have said he'd been beaten to a pulp by a gang of thugs armed with basball bats. Glancing up I caught Brenda sitting there watching me.

"They did a number on him" Brenda shrugged.

"Well, he was armed, if it hadn't been for the vests they were both wearing they might not be here now" She nodded at the folder in my hands. "A few pages over" I flipped past a few pages to see photo's of the front of Jane's vest sliced open in two lines, one high and the other low. Another page and Ana's vest showed the effects as well, stab marks to the chest, the other a slash to the side. The following pages showed the sizable collection of cuts and bruises both women had amassed during the arrest. Pursing my lips I flipped back and forward between the images.

"I knew they were good but Homoru must have a good hundred and twenty pound advantage on them, they were lucky they weren't killed" I looked up to see Brenda nodding.

"Yeah, Maura and Natalie apparently gave them hell about it after they ended up getting looked over by Maura" I looked up and raised an eyebrow in question. Brenda sighed in response then explained. "Jane wouldn't go to the hospital, said that she'd rather Maura treat her and Ana went along with her, so they ended up waiting on the scene until Maura got there. She checked them over and dressed their injuries as well as taking the injury photo's you see there" I frowned a little, imagining that conversation. Brenda saw it and nodded. "She wasn't happy, I mean it's Maura, so she wasn't yelling or anything, but you could tell they'd be having a discussion later" I nodded slowly.

"I don't mind telling you I wouldn't like a seriously unhappy Maura angry with me" Brenda shook her head.

"Me neither, but she wasn't really angry, more upset and I dunno, resigned maybe, than anything else" I thought about it, knowing Jane had been badly injured on the job several times, meaning Maura had probably seen it before, it explained the resignation and made sense. Brenda was continuing. "I have to say Jane looked really miserable, like someone had just kicked her puppy, I've never seen that before but it is Maura" I nodded, if there was a massive chink in that thick armor Jane wore around her emotions, it was Maura. Brenda looked up and nodded, then continued. "Natalie though, she arrived and read them both the riot act, oh god did she ever" She shook her head wonderingly. "I have to tell you Sharon, she was some kinda pissed, I thought I knew some inventive descriptions for stupid, but she went to town, everyone was standing around, trying real hard to not like they were listening in, taking notes maybe, right up till she looked round, then everybody suddenly was real busy doing something" She shrugged. "They wanted out of the line of fire, I mean she was really, really angry" I nodded slowly.

"I understand that Ana has been injured before?"

"Yeah, apparently though she's supposed to be taking less chances now, even promised Nat she would" I nodded, even though it was probably a foolish promise given what we did for a living. Brenda tilted her head to regard me. "Ana tried to tell her that she had Jane there, so they'd both have backup, they'd been there covering each other" I pursed my lips, wondering how that would have gone down, even as Brenda shook her head. "Didn't help much, Nat demanded to know if that was the case why were they both sitting in an ambulance being checked over by Maura" Brenda snorted. "Then she put her hands on her hips, hit them both with a pretty filthy stare and demanded to know why they hadn't just shot him in the first place and not risked getting killed" I winced, I could understand the sentiment, but in actuality…

"How did that go down?"

"Not all that well, but Natalie was too angry to hear any excuses. Maura was kinda unhappy too so I wouldn't be surprised if both of them spent the night on the couch, they were definitely both in the doghouse" I smiled at her.

"You don't really believe that do you?" She shrugged.

"Natalie was pretty pissed, Maura less so, though I gather she's used to patching Jane up after various incidents" She looked thoughtful for a moment then spoke. "I suppose it depends on how apologetic they both were" I smiled at the thought of a groveling Ana or Jane.

"I'm sure, given the alternative, they'd be very, very apologetic" We smiled for a moment before Brenda spoke.

"Yeah, if it was me and the choice was the the couch alone or curled up with you I'd be pretty damned apologetic" I smiled.

"How good's your grovelling?" She smiled.

"Under the circumstances, it'd be amazing" I let my smile out at her.

"Mine too" Brenda nodded then scowled as she nodded back at the folder I'd dropped on the table between us. "Unfortunately his lawyer's screaming 'police brutality' and threatening both a formal complaint and a civil lawsuit" I nodded slowly as I looked down, flipping back through the report, then glanced up to look at Brenda.

"The case isn't likely to get too far, he resisted arrest, refused to drop his weapon and attacked them both" I shrugged. "His lawyer's being overly optimistic if he thinks this will get up" I looked down again as I flicked through the sheets, frowning at the images of his knives there. "If this gets to FID it will be investigated and they'll be cleared" Brenda pursed her lips for a moment.

"True, but it's the thought of the civil suit that bothers me, they could drag that out forever in the courts and neither of them deserve that" I nodded slowly, glancing down as I flipped through the pages, she was right, I'd seen cases like these dragged on for years.

"So what do you have in mind and why do you need me?" She smiled happily.

"I need to convince him to drop the suit" I looked up at her, making a coaxing motion with one hand.

"And you need me for..." She smiled, a little uncertainly.

"I need you to help me with the good cop, bad cop tag team" I smirked a little.

"Naturally you will be the bad cop" She raised an eyebrow at me.

"So by default you're the good cop?" I sniggered

"That goes without saying honey" I couldn't help messing with her. "I'm always good" I got the expected eye roll, followed by a wide smile and a low chuckle.

"No arguments from me there, I can't wait to wrap this up and go home so you can prove that all over again" She leaned forward. "That's for later though; this is what I want us to do now…" I leaned forward as Brenda outlined her plan.

Quietly sitting back in the interrogation room's uncomfortable seats; I've often thought they're so painful to sit in partly to encourage people to confess just to be allowed to get out of them. I was attempting to look as dispassionate, uninterested even, as we'd agreed, while Brenda spoke, her voice full of exaggerated politeness, overflowing with that sweet Georgia lilt.

Hearing it here in the interrogation room was a little…disconcerting; in my experience her accent tends to come out particularly strongly when Brenda is tired, relaxed or, in the context we both like best, both. It's a tone I've come to associate most strongly with other, more carnal activities and their aftermath, I wasn't used to sitting in interrogation rooms with her, hearing her using that voice to manipulate suspects.

"Thank you for agreeing to speak with us Mister Homoru, on what is unfortunately short notice" He shrugged, trying to play it cool, his English was good but with a noticeable accent.

"It so happened that my schedule was free"

His voice and attitude carried a insolent self-confidence that I felt was completely unwarranted given he was sitting there with one hand cuffed to the table, the other wrist encased in a plaster cast and with bandages and dressings visible all over his body, not to mention the tiny, almost unconscious winces he was giving every time he moved. Despite that he was still a very big guy who radiated a palpable sense of menace, I found myself appreciating Andy Flynn and David Gabriel's quiet but reassuring presence in the room even as Brenda tilted her head to regard him and smiled.

"I appreciate that Mister Homoru, I really do"

"May I ask where my lawyer is?" He looked from Brenda to me and back again. "I do not believe that I should be talking to you without him present" Brenda nodded, her blonde locks bobbing as she did.

"That's very true Mister Homoru, normally I wouldn't dream of chatting to you without Mister Cosgrove here, but we're not here to talk about the charges you face" He raised an eyebrow but said nothing, waiting.

"We're here to discuss the matter of you resisting arrest" Brenda flipped through the folder in front of her. "Refusing to comply with a lawful order from a police officer, flight to avoid arrest, resisting arrest, carrying concealed weapons, assault with those self-same deadly weapons, assaulting a police officer, assaulting a Federal officer, attempt to cause grievous bodily harm" She looked up. "Quite the list really" Homoru pulled a face.

"There was obviously a misunderstanding" He shrugged. "Your police officers had the wrong person and were overzealous. I thought I was being attacked and defended myself, as I understand it is my right to do so here in America" I saw Andy Flynn shake his head in disbelief from where he stood behind Homoru as Brenda leaned back in her seat.

"Your right to defend yourself ends when they identified themselves as police officers; instead you pulled out knives and attacked them, forcing them to subdue you"

"I understand that my lawyer feels that a case can be made that your two officers exceeded their authority; I believe the term he used was 'police brutality' as I recall" Brenda smiled politely.

"Given the injuries both officers received from you, plus the knife wounds to their vests, I have to tell you that your lawyer is sadly mistaken"

"I believe that is a matter to be decided by your court system" Brenda nodded.

"As will your other charges"

"I will fight to prove my innocence" David and Andy's eyerolls were almost synchronised and I found myself fighting to keep the smile off my face, even as I leaned forward. I'd remained silent so far, now however I lifted my hands onto the table and folded them together, the move catching Honoru's attention.

"Mister Homoru, you may think what happened is important to you, but let me explain to you how this is going to play out" I sat there, looking at him and giving him a chance to respond but he said nothing. I lent forward slightly.

"You will stand trial for multiple counts of homicide" I shrugged, emphasising that his conviction was a mere matter of process, not up for argument. "We have more than enough evidence to secure a conviction." Brenda leaned forward in her seat, tapping the table to draw his attention.

"That would have sent you straight to death row but California's not executing anyone at the moment; more's the pity" Brenda smiled quietly. "You'll end up with the other death row inmates, some of the worst scum, psychopaths and remorseless killers to be found anywhere" She shrugged. "God knows I've put enough of them there myself over the years" I spoke again, dragging his attention from Brenda.

"You are looking at life Mister Homoru, twenty five years behind bars before anyone can start considering you for parole" He looked between us and tried to smile.

"If you want my cooperation you have a strange way of asking for it" Brenda favoured him with a wide smile, all innocence and charm, her accent in full flight.

"Help, why goodness me no, we're not asking you for help Mister Homoru, we're actually here to help you is all" Homoru snorted his derision, but we could see his curiosity inside.

"You, help me?"

"That we are Mister Homoru" He stared at us, waiting for a response, when none came he was forced to ask.

"How?" Brenda glanced at me as I nodded slowly, attracting Homoru's attention.

"Word gets around Mister Homoru, about a man's crimes, how dangerous he is. Surprising how quickly the news passes round a prison, although I'm sure you already know that" Brenda sat back and spoke.

"See, the thing you have to understand is that a prison's like a jungle, it's Darwin's survival of the fittest played out for real in there" I nodded once, taking up the thread again.

"I'm sure you don't need it all spelled out for you, the strong prey on the weak, any suspicion of weakness is an opening for others" Brenda's lips quirked as she glanced at me before speaking

"Blood in the water" I nodded once and smiled as I spoke.

"And a prison full of amoral sharks" Homoru started to get angry, the chain connecting his wrist to the table rattling in agravation.

"What has this to do with me?" Brenda tilted her head as she regarded him, her voice still full of politeness.

"Well Mister Homoru, when word gets around, and I can assure you it will, that you were beaten in a straight up fist fight by a pair of women, beautiful women at that, you can imagine what that will do for your reputation amongst your peers" She leaned forward, sliding two images out of the folder and out onto the table, shots of Jane and Anastasia taken at last year's LAPD Ball, looking stunning and very feminine in red and white gowns, the move catching Homoru's eyes. "Especially if they were to come pay you a visit in prison, get them to dress up all nice, skirts, heels, that sort of thing, showing everyone just how much larger than them you were, and just how beautiful they are" I caught Andy nodding slowly and exchanging a look with David, who was smiling, they'd seen where this was leading, before I tapped the table to attract Homoru's attention from the images back to me.

"You and I may know different, but your fellow inmates will take one look at them and decide that they can't possibly be that capable" I shrugged. "Society doesn't equate women, beauty and toughness together, so once your new friends in prison learn that you were thrashed in a straight up fight by two beautiful women, your standing in the prison hierarchy will fall Mister Homoru, so far and so fast you won't know what the hell happened" I shrugged once more. "Now I'm sure a man of your capabilities will be able to defend yourself from some of the people who come after you, but all that does is upset people, upset the established order of things" Brenda nodded aggreeably and took up the narrative.

"Eventually you'll end up on the wrong side of the wrong people and wind up dead, shanked in the kidneys and left to bleed out on the floor while everyone around you ignores your pleas for help and no one will care"

I could see Homoru taking it in, he wasn't stupid, didn't try and bluster his way through, just sat there and took it in as Brenda continued.

"Now I understand that you wish to claim police brutality and that's completely within your rights. I mean your list of injuries sustained is significant" Brenda picked up a file from the table in front of her and leafed through it.

"A broken wrist, fractured elbow, four fractured ribs…" She glanced up at Homoru, before looking down again. "That's in addition to the broken rib of course. Then we have a dislocated shoulder, a busted clavicle, fractured cheekbone and a cracked kneecap, the bruised kidney and liver, in addition to numerous torn ligaments plus assorted contusions and abrasions" She glanced up again, before tossing the file back onto the desk. "Those two women did a real number on you didn't they Mister Homoru?" She shrugged. "I can completely understand someone might want to complain about these injuries" I took up the tale again even as I saw Andy and David smiling.

"Your allegations will be heard in court, with all the evidence presented, including the fact that you were armed with knives, before you were forcibly disarmed I mean" I smiled cheerfully. "Before they took your knives off you that is" I paused and then shrugged, making it quite obvious that I was imagining how that little tidbit would play out amongst the other prisoners. "That you attacked both arresting officers and they had to restrain you, during which you received the injuries I just mentioned" I adjusted my glasses carefully, my eyes never leaving his. "It is quite a list of injuries, one that you would hardly think credible when you think that it was you versus two much smaller women" I shrugged. "Naturally your injuries will be presented as evidence, for all to hear" Brenda leaned forward.

"Wanna bet how long it takes for that list to make its way back into the prison population Mister Homoru?" I glanced at her and nodded once, before looking back at Homoru.

"So not long after it gets to court, all of your fellow inmates will know that you were disarmed and badly beaten, in a fair fight, by two beautiful women. They will know all of it, right down to which ribs were broken and which injuries won't have fully healed" Brenda smiled, a little wistfully, oh she was so good at this, her voice almost reflective. "When word gets round the sharks will come, looking for the scent of weakness and blood in the water" She paused, then spoke again, her voiced hardening. "You'll be playing a new game in there Mister Homoru, a game called survival" I smiled a little as well, letting him see how little I cared.

"Good luck with that" I could see his eyes narrow as he thought it over, he wasn't stupid, he knew exactly how this would play out.

"What are you proposing?" Brenda sat back, a little surprise colouring her voice.

"Proposing? We're not proposing anything. This is just a small piece of advice, offered free. If you were to reconsider your choice, drop the brutality claims and I guarantee that no one will have to learn that Detective Rizzoli and Special Agent Romanov beat you into a broken, bleeding pulp with their bare hands" I cut in before he could reply.

"Otherwise, proceed with your complaint and deal with the consequences. The choice is yours" Sitting back and clasping my hands in front of me on the table top I could see it in his face before he spoke, the slight drop of his shoulders, the downward cast of his eyes, I could see Andy and David exchanging nods and smiles as well, they'd seen it too; we'd won.

Standing, I walked to the door and held it for Brenda, who passed though without a word as I followed her through and let the uniformed officers in who'd take Homoru back to the medical section of the holding centre.

As I did Brenda turned to me and smiled that naturally happy smile I love, drawing a smile from me in turn. Linking her arm in mine, she turned us back towards her office as we strolled in step.

"Now then Sharon, how about we wrap up early. I understand you have something to prove to me, that you're always good?"

I smiled at her, already planning how best to prove my case.


	38. Chapter 38

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**38 Big Apple Ball**

Natalie's viewpoint

The New York Mayor's Charity Ball was something else; I'd lost track of the number of minor and the occasional not-so-minor celebrities we'd spotted since arriving. I'd also noticed that we were attracting way more than our fair share of interest from other guests. It'd started when we'd arrived in the stretch limo Alex had arranged, being helped out of the car and escorted up the stairs by our respective partners, heads had started turning and hadn't stopped since.

It wasn't us, there were more than enough beautiful women here, it was all due to our escorts; Ana, Jane and Liv were stunning, they drew the eye of all who saw them, carrying themselves with an unconscious presence, each gorgeous in their own unique way. While you'd think three women wearing tuxedos would have a vaguely androgynous look that reduced their individuality the close tailoring actually had a completely opposite result, emphasizing their curves and drawing the eye to their faces, bringing their differences to the fore, ensuring the viewer was in no doubt that these were three unique, beautiful women.

Jane was amazing, on five-inch heels she stood well over six feet tall, commanding attention, her hair gelled straight into a long ponytail emphasising her lean features and striking cheekbones, her wide shoulders, narrow hips and lean athletic frame perfectly mirroring her tuxedos lines, she was gorgeous, even more so teamed with Maura on her arm in a forest green Anna Sui gown that left her shoulders bare, she'd had her hair styled in an up do, not her usual look but she was even more beautiful tonight, on Jane's arm she looked gorgeous and they were the envy of all who saw them.

Olivia was powerful and curvaceous, her short hair a perfect match for the masculine look, though her delicious curves left no one in any doubt that she was, despite her protestations about how she didn't do 'girly', all woman, feminine and beautiful. A couple of inches shorter than Alex, she was wearing a set of stilettoes that had taken all of Alex's considerable persuasive talents to coax her into. Alex had quietly confided while we'd been getting ready that Liv had been wearing them around their apartment after work for the last two weeks to get them broken in and be comfortable walking in them.

I have to confess images of Liv in sweats and four inch heels doing the dishes had made me privately smile but there was no way I could argue with the results, she was remarkable, a perfect consort to Alex on her arm. Alex had her hair styled to one side, tumbling forward across her left shoulder, a match to the Monique- Lhuillier red evening gown which left her right shoulder bare, emphasising her pale skin and piercing blue eyes while still covering her scar. She'd toned her heels down so she and Liv were the same height and they looked fantastic together, the love in their eyes obvious to everyone.

As for Ana; well she was simply breathtaking, I could now see the attraction that Maura had tried to convey that she'd felt when she'd first seen Jane in a tuxedo; I'd barely been able to keep my hands to myself since she'd got dressed earlier this evening. Her wonderful curves, emphasised by the close tailoring of her suit, had my mouth watering just looking at her. I loved her hair gelled flat and in a pony tail, overall it was a completely different look but she carried it off with the natural confidence that I'd always found so damned hard to resist. In fact, I'd tried to seduce her earlier tonight but she'd just smiled and told me we had places to be and we'd have to postpone anything more than a quick kiss until we got back, then she'd laughed at the expression on my face. I have to admit I was pouting like a sulky child not getting the treat they'd demanded, but in my defence she was utterly devestating dressed like that and I couldn't wait to have her. With effort I'd composed myself, heading back to the bathroom to check on my makeup, pausing as I passed to lean in and whisper into her ear.

"All right for now Tsarina, but tonight you're mine, to do with what...I...will..." I ended it with a gentle swipe of the edge of her ear with the tip of my tongue, seeing her gentle shiver of delight, before I pranced off to the bathroom, a satisfied smile on my face, her plaintive cry of 'no fair' drifting after me, changing my smile to a grin.

Now I stood there waiting as Ana closed the car door and turned, offering me her arm. I slid my arm through hers and we paused for a moment, I'd always known we looked good singly and even better as a couple, but tonight, with Ana as my escort I'd never felt prouder to be on her arm. I caught her running her eyes over me and blushed a little; I felt just a little like I had on my Prom night, all anticipation and nerves. She smiled and pulled me just a little closer, leaning in to whisper in my ear.

"You look sensational Blondie, I don't know how you do it, but you look even more beautiful now than when we first met" I looked down, feeling my cheeks burn even hotter as her words hit home; oh that woman, she always knew what to say. I went to reply when she spoke again, a touch of doubt in her voice. "I hope I look good enough to be with you tonight"

My head came up and my eyes widened as I realised she wasn't fishing for compliments, she was serious. She'd commented earlier on how good Liv and Jane had looked when we'd first seen them, but I hadn't realised Ana was feeling a little intimidated, maybe feeling a little inadequate compared to them both, as utterly silly as that was. Seeing her downcast eyes, I turned to face her, my words tumbled out in my urgency to reassure her and tell her exactly how wonderful she looked.

"Tsarina, look at me, please" She lifted her gaze, her grey eyes meeting mine as I spoke low and firm, desperate for her to hear the truth in what I was saying. "Ana, even dressed as a guy, you are still the most beautiful woman here tonight. I'm so lucky to have you, to be here with you, to be your partner; I couldn't ask for more, it's perfect" She bit her lower lip for a moment, obviously unsure as I went on. "I am honoured to be the one with you tonight Ana; I'll happily walk in there safe in the knowledge that I have the most gorgeous woman in the room on my arm. Best of all, it'll be the one person in the whole world I want to be with, now and forever" I watched as a smile blossomed on her face.

"It's moments like this I know why you're in public relations Nat; you always know the right thing to say to make everything sound better" I smiled, reaching out for a second to adjust her bow tie and run my hands over her chest, smoothing her jacket's lapels down as her hands came up to support my arms, just glad to have the contact. Like Jane and Liv, Ana was wearing a cummerbund that matched our dresses, Jane's in green, Liv's in red and Ana in blue to match my cobalt sheath. She looked good enough to eat and I intended to do just that when we got back to our hotel, she was delicious and I intended to gorge myself on her tonight, I smiled happily, knowing that all was right in the world.

"It's easy Tsarina, when it's the truth" I glanced up to see the others looking back at us. "C'mon, I think we have to make out debut" She offered me her arm again and I looped mine through it, leaning in close and smiling at me as we stepped up to join the others, before making our way across the forecourt and into the building.

The appreciative looks and whispering had started as soon as we entered and followed us around the room though we tried hard to not notice as we made our way through the crowd, mingling for a while, meeting lots of people, Maura and Alex being approached by dozens of people who knew of them through the Isles and Cabot family's charitable works, naturally they handled it with their usual enviable aplomb, the rest of us standing there happily chatting and being supportive, trying to ignore some of the outright gawking we were getting and doing some mingling of our own.

At one point I'd found myself talking to Captain Picard himself, Patrick Stewart. I had to say that voice of his was enough to make me swoon, plus he was as charming as you'd expect of a Star Fleet Captain, enough so that I felt a bit star struck. The beard he was wearing was slightly off-putting, even though the grey made him even more distinguished, it didn't seem to bother his partner though, she was younger than him, but who wouldn't be smitten by Patrick Stewart?

After we parted Ana leaned in and teased me, asking if she was in danger of losing me. I just poked my tongue out at her for being silly, telling her that he was taken. When she teased me some more, asking what about if he wasn't I had to laugh, telling her that if there was any guy worth going straight for, the Captain of the Starship Enterprise would have to be high on the list.

Having attracted their interest with our laughter I was just explaining my reasoning to Alex and Liv when Olivia suddenly shoved her glass into Alex's hand and with a muttered apology took off into the crowd, leaving us looking after her. I turned to look across at Alex with a raised eyebrow, getting a shrug and a smile in return.

"Liv probably spotted someone she knows, I'm still getting used to exactly how many people she's crossed paths with over the years" As we turned to watch Liv strode up to a strikingly beautiful tawny-blonde woman in a snug-fitting mid-thigh dress who turned at a question, her eyes widening in surprise before throwing herself into a huge hug, a hug which Liv returned with equal enthusiasm. I smiled at the delighted expressions on both women's faces as their laughter and cries rang out.

"Obviously a friend" Alex smiled in return, her voice dry as dust.

"Obviously" As we watched, Liv and the other woman stood back for a moment, taking stock of each other, faces alight with joy, chatting animatedly for a bit before Liv took the other woman's arm and escorted her towards us as the tawny-blonde looked around briefly. Olivia's face was lit up by a huge smile, one mirrored by the stranger.

"Hey everyone, I'd like you to meet Kate Beckett. Kate's a detective with Homicide, over in the 12th precinct. We worked together as uniforms, partners pounding the beat years ago, back when we were both a lot younger"

As introductions were made I looked over Kate Beckett, she was quite stunning, with a tall and slender figure, dreamy hazel eyes, a sexily tumbling mane of hair, cheekbones to die for and legs as good as Jane's, wrapped in that deep crimson dress she was a real treat. Olivia slid an arm round Alex's waist and pulled her close, smiling at her for a moment before continuing.

"And this is my partner, Alex Cabot, Alex's an ADA who handles a lot of our cases" Kate smiled and held out her hand to Alex, getting a smile from Alex as they shook.

"Congratulations, both of you. I'm glad someone finally managed to get Benson here divorced from her job" There were smiles all round as Olivia threw her an exasperated glance.

"Hey, you were even worse" Kate smiled and nodded, conceding the point.

"That I was, but I finally got my head straight" Olivia grinned.

"So what brings you here, not that I'm not glad to see you" Kate laughed.

"My partner got an invitation and I tagged along" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Partner professional or partner personal?" Kate nodded and glanced down for a moment, before looking up with a sly smile.

"Both. I got assigned a writer to shadow me; he was working on a new book and wanted to get some ideas. We hit it off and well, that was four years ago" Jane raised an eyebrow.

"A writer; really?"

"That would be my cue" We turned to see a well-built guy, sandy brown hair, blue eyes, ruggedly handsome, looking like he was born to wear a tux, standing there with a smile on his face and two glasses of champaign in his hands, one of which he passed to Kate, along with a warm look. Kate gave him a lovely smile in return, before reaching out and drawing him to her side, turning to make the introductions.

"Ah yes, I'd like to introduce my partner, Richard Castle" Ana's jaw dropped.

"THE Richard Castle, the Nikki Heat books?" Ana loved Castle's novels, in particular the Nikki Heat series. He smiled warmly.

"The very same" At that Olivia turned a huge grin on Kate.

"I'd heard that they were based on an NYPD detective but I didn't know it was you" Castle smiled.

"I needed a muse; Kate here provided exactly what I needed…" He smiled at her, his love obvious. "…and still does" Kate rolled her eyes at him, obviously an old thing between them, before turning back to us.

"It was supposed to be a one book thing, but it was popular enough that the Mayor's office agreed to an additional three book deal, so I've been stuck with him ever since" Castle gave a slightly crooked smile.

"I prefer to think of it as a partnership" Olivia smiled before remembering herself.

"Where's my manners, I'm Olivia Benson, a former partner of Kate's, back in the day. Nice to meet you Mr Castle" He smiled widely, obviously happy for them.

"Please call me Rick, any friend of Kate, especially a beautiful one..." Kate just gently swatted him as they smiled at each other. He was charming in a casually disarming sort of way. Olivia smiled.

"Rick it is. Let me introduce you to our friends" As each of us was introduced I could see him taking us in, probably a writer trick, building a thumbnail sketch of each of us before he looked round, taking us all in.

"So all of you are in law enforcement?" Jane nodded.

"Yep, Maura and I are from Boston originally, we did a secondment to the LAPD which became permanent, Nat and Ana here are originally from Seattle PD and the Bureau's field office there, but they're now both in LA as well" Olivia took up the story.

"Alex is one of the Assistant District Attorney's here in New York who works closely on our cases and I'm in the Special Victim's Unit"

"It's great to meet you all; here I was thinking this was going to be another boring charity shindig, but this is so much better" There were smiles all round as I could feel Ana practically vibrating with anticipation, she wanted to talk to Castle so bad, this would be a dream come true. I was just turning to smile at her when Castle took a sip of his drink and nodded behind us.

"I wonder what's going on out there" I noticed the group's heads all swing in unison, '_you can take the cop out of the uniform…_'

Looking round myself, I caught the commotion at the far end of the room. An explosion of flash guns as the media went nuts near the entrance. Probably a major celebrity, most of the mainstream media would be shooting video, not stills so these were probably paparazzi. Through the crowd we could suddenly see a shock of white hair as I saw Alex smile into her drink out of the corner of my eye.

"Ah, that would be Miranda" Heads turned. Jane was a fraction faster than Kate and Ana, their voices an echo.

"Who?" I saw Olivia smile wickedly as Alex looked up from her glass with an all too innocent expression on her face.

"Miranda Priestly" Maura's head snapped around, shock on her face.

"Of Runway magazine?" I swallowed convulsively. '_Oh my god_'. With effort I finally got my mouth working.

"THE Miranda Priestly?" Alex exchanged grins with Liv, then looked round at us, her innocent tone fooling no one.

"Yes, she said she'd be attending" Ana stared at her.

"You know Miranda Priestly?" Alex shrugged gently.

"We've known each other for years. She said she was looking forward to catching up" Kate looked like I felt as she latched onto Rick's arm.

"Well it was lovely to meet you all, we'll leave you to meet Ms Priestly" Rick looked at her, his surprise evident.

"We're leaving?" Kate looked stricken, her voice low and urgent.

"Castle, it's Miranda Priestly, the woman's the ultimate fashion arbiter; I don't think I'm dressed appropriately to meet her. Ever!" Castle looked both concerned and amused.

"Nonsense, you look great, besides I'd like to meet her" He shrugged. "I've heard a lot about her, I'd be interested to see if the stories are true" Kate was glancing over her shoulder at the approaching media scrum. Her voice was low and pitched somewhere between a moan and a whine.

"Castle!" Alex leaned in, placing her hand on Kate's arm.

"Kate, it's ok, Miranda's here for the party, she's not here to pass judgement on what you're wearing, besides, you look great, is that a Herve Leger?" Kate chewed her lip for a moment, managing to look both anguished and adorable all at once.

"Um yeah, I like his style; I try and buy something new each season if I can"

"You're lucky to find a designer that looks that good on you; though I'm sure he'd be happy to see one of his outfits gracing you too, you look great. Just relax; we're all here to have a good time, even Miranda" Kate looked a little uncertain, before giving Alex a tight, nervous nod and a small, uncertain smile. I noticed Rick catch Alex's eye and they shared a silent conversation as he thanked her and she gave him a tiny smile in return.

As we watched, Miranda Priestly stepped forward, moving away from the pack of photographers who were stopped at the entrance. She was wearing a black and silver satin evening gown with a fur wrap and looked like the epitome of old time glamour and sophistication.

I could see she was accompanied by two women, one a sinuous, slender brunette in a strapless cerulean blue evening dress that emphasised her tall, slim figure, the other a slim redhead with a slightly harried expression in a deep green sheath.

Turning to speak to the brunette, Priestly caught site of Alex and her professional smile disappeared, replaced by the genuine article, making her look years younger. She turned to the redhead and said something which sent her scurrying off, leaving her and the brunette to walk towards us as the crowd parted in front of her. I noticed that the brunette was younger than Priestly but didn't seem intimidated by her at all; in fact I could see that they moved comfortably together, walking close.

I noticed Maura swallowing as she looked down at her dress.

"Oh dear" I felt exactly the same way. Ana's hand suddenly appeared in mine as she leaned in close.

"You ok Blondie?" I nervously threw a sketchy smile at her as I lowered my voice.

"No not really. It's Miranda goddamn Priestly after all" Ana's warm breath ghosted over my ear as she leaned close.

"Hey, it's ok, we enjoy the night, we head home tomorrow and she'll have forgotten we even exist. Besides, you look amazing, you're coming home with me tonight and I love you, so relax, you'll be cool" I took a deep breath; feeling a little calmer, somehow Ana always knew what to say.

I turned to look at her, she was stunning and here and mine, centering me as she always did.

"Thank you Tsarina" I got a flirtatious wink and smile.

"You can thank me later, when we get back to the hotel" We shared a look, before turning back to meet Miranda Priestly, god help me.


	39. Chapter 39

**A/N **This whole Mirandy crossover was inspired by a SVU / DWP short story entitled 'By Courier' by one of my favourite authors here, Rae D. Magdon (story id: 6522098) . Go check it out, it's short and sweet.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**39 Big Apple Ball Part 2**

Natalie's viewpoint

As Miranda Priestly bore down on us I swallowed and glanced around, noticing that Kate's hand was in Rick's, while Jane was leaning in, her hand at Maura's back and saying something reassuring to Maura who was looking a little intimidated, something I'd never really ever seen on her before. Only Alex and Liv were calm, a good thing really cause I sure as hell wasn't.

"Alex, darling Alex" Miranda enfolded Alex in a warm hug which was happily returned, before turning to Olivia and running her eyes over her. "My dear Olivia, I love the look, you carry it off very well indeed" She leaned in and wrapped Liv into a hug, getting one in return.

Meanwhile the younger woman and Alex were exchanging hugs, before she turned to Liv and they embraced. Miranda looked around at us as Alex stepped in, all grace and poise.

"Miranda, I'd like to introduce some dear friends of ours, Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli of Boston and Anastasia Romanov and Natalie Dearing of Seattle" I watched her eyes flick over us, taking us in, I felt like I'd been examined, every piece of clothing I was wearing assessed for label value and then catalogued. This woman had imperious intimidation and a majestic presence that quite frankly unsettled me. Alex meanwhile had turned to the other members of our little group.

"I'd also like to introduce Kate Beckett and Richard Castle, fellow New Yorkers"

Smiles and nods were exchanged, before she turned slightly.

"It's lovely to meet you all. May I introduce my companion, Andrea Sachs" My eyes narrowed at her words; companion; based on their proximity and their comfort with each other there was a lot more than the friendship the term implied. I noted a similar reaction in Ana and Jane's expressions as well; Maura was too well-schooled to let show whatever she might be thinking as Andrea smiled at us; very pretty, gorgeous even, all slim curves, huge expressive eyes and a generous mouth under a shock of dark hair. The smile was a lot more open, less guarded than Miranda's, less tempered by life's harshness. Miranda meanwhile looked across us, taking in Olivia, Jane and Anastasia.

"Were you perhaps looking to start a new fashion trend?" Alex smiled.

"Maura's idea originally, but it seemed like such a good one that we just had to run with it" Miranda smiled, taking us all in.

"I'd have to agree with you, the famous Le Smoking style realised for a new century, such a pity that more women couldn't carry it off as well as you all have tonight" There was an outbreak of smiles all round before Kate leaned forward, all care and charm.

"Ms Priestly, I see that you and Ms Sachs haven't got drinks yet, what can we get you" Miranda smiled at her words.

"That's very nice of you thank you; however my assistant, Emily, is chasing up drinks for us. In fact where is… ah there she is" I followed her gaze to see the red head in the green dress hurrying towards us carrying two glasses. Reaching us she passed across the glasses to Miranda and Andrea however I noticed she didn't have one herself. I was about to say something when Jane snagged a champaign flute from a passing waiter and passed it to Emily, getting a grateful smile in return.

The next few moments were a fraction awkward, how the hell do you make small talk with Miranda Priestly? Then Alex leaned in and complimented Andrea on her gown, which was lovely, while Olivia asked a question of Miranda. In seconds we were a group of people chatting, as Anastasia made a bee line to talk to Richard Castle; I should have guessed; protect her lover from Miranda Priestly or hang with a world-famous crime author who writes some of her favourite books? No contest. I smiled to myself while I sipped my champaign, as Maura engaged Emily in a conversation with Jane, leaving Kate and I to chat.

"I see we've been abandoned" I sighed theatrically as she smiled at where Ana and her partner stood only a couple of feet away, deep in discussion.

"You get used to it. So many people have read the books, loved them, they want to discuss them with him" I nodded.

"That'd be Ana, I think she has all of them, there's certainly enough of them that they take up a couple of shelves back home" I found myself looking into beautiful hazel eyes, so like Maura's, the curiosity there plain to see as she leaned a little closer.

"How long have you been together, if you don't mind me asking?" I smiled, I could talk about Ana all day.

"Course not, it's been over four years now, almost five actually, we met in Seattle when Ana was with the Bureau's field office and I was with King 5 television news, we met while we were both at work on the same case and hit it off from there. What about you?"

"Well, we've been together for only about seven months but we've actually worked together as partners for about three years" I nodded, fascinated.

"Was it interesting, having him working with you?" Kate rolled her eyes.

"Annoying as hell at the start to be honest, I didn't need some wannabe dilettante amateur messing up my cases, but he turned out to be useful, he helped out on that first case and then the next and the next and before I knew it he was part of my team" I nodded, fascinated, after all this was someone Liv obviously thought the world of, that made her someone I wanted to know.

"How's that work out? I mean working together that closely? Ana and I work in the same organisation but not that closely" She smiled gently, obviously reflecting on the past as she spoke.

"It has its moments, good and bad. It means you can't leave the job at work, but on the other hand sometimes, when the job gets to you, he's right there, giving me all the support I need" I nodded slowly, remembering that horrible killing of Iris Park a few months back, having Ana there comforting me at the scene had been wonderful, just what I'd desperately needed right then. Kate took a sip of her drink and smiled.

"So how do you know Olivia and Alex?" I smiled happily in return, glad to talk about some of my favourite people.

"Friends of friends actually; Jane and Maura were in LA on secondment, they arrived at the same time we did and we met them through work. They introduced us to Olivia and Alex when they came out to LA for a conference" Kate nodded as I continued. "Maura had committed to come to the Ball, back before they came out to LA and knew that Liv and Alex would be here, so they suggested we come with them, plus it gave us a chance to get Liv, Jane and Ana into tuxes" She nodded.

"Yeah, I was wondering about that"

"Maura had got an invitation to an event back when she and Jane were just getting together which didn't specify, just said formal wear so Maura got her into a tux. Jane's not big on dresses, in fact all three of them aren't particularly comfortable in dresses, a hang up you quite obviously don't share thank god" I got a cheeky grin in return as I continued. "The invite for tonight said formal wear, so…"

"You got them into tuxes. Nice one" We exchanged happy grins while I looked over at Ana chatting animatedly with Rick, both smiling happily.

"Maura's idea actually, based on an event they went to a few years back that said formal wear, but yeah, they look good" I took a sip of my wine and tossed my hair back, catching her eye. "What about you and Liv?" Kate gave me a beautiful smile that lit up her face, making me realise Rick was a very lucky man if he got to see her like that regularly.

"We were beat partners for a couple of years; she was the senior and took a rookie under her wing, I learnt a lot about being a cop from her, she kept me alive on the streets long enough to learn how to survive" I nodded as she continued. "We were both loners so we spent a lot of time hanging together off duty too. Looked out for one another, watched each other's back, they were good times" She shrugged. "Eventually Liv was promoted to detective in Vice and I finally got promoted went into Robbery. We stayed in touch when she went to SVU and I went into Homicide, but we kinda lost track of each other, especially when she did a few jobs working deep undercover with the feds. It's good to see her again, especially so happy" I smiled.

"Alex is amazingly good for her, same as Liv's good for her" Kate nodded.

"I'm really happy to see her happy, she deserves it" I was about to reply when I felt a tap on my arm and turned to look at Alex, who was looking at me with barely disguised glee.

"Pardon me Kate, sorry to interrupt Nat, but Miranda has a question for you both" I swallowed, having completely forgotten she had been standing only a few feet from us while chatting to Kate. As I turned I saw Kate catch her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment, before turning and smiling as I did the same. Miranda Priestly smiled politely at us and spoke.

"I was wondering; whom do you walk for?" I blinked for a moment, not understanding the question.

"I'm sorry Ms Priestly, I'm not sure what you mean" She raised an eyebrow at us in a '_really, you're joking_' gesture, as I cringed internally, then spoke again, a trifle more acerbically.

"Which agency do you work for?" My eyes widened as I realised what she meant. '_Oh!_' I thought as I saw both Liv and Alex trying to remain impassive, I realised they were setting Miranda up; I could even see the funny side but really wished it had been someone else. I was about to say something when Kate smiled and leaned forward a little.

"The NYPD actually" I took a breath and forced a smile.

"LAPD here" There was silence for a moment, as Miranda examined us forensically, before turning to Alex, catching the smile trying to break through.

"I see" She was about to say something when Andrea, who'd heard the whole thing, leaned in and whispered something to her, making Miranda pause, then nod slowly.

"I suppose you are right" She looked across at Alex. "Andrea has reminded me that you owed me one after that last dinner, so shall we call it even?" Alex let her smile out and nodded.

"Deal" Miranda looked back at us, smiling a lot less formally than before.

"I was actually curious, I had thought you both models and wondered which agency you were with, as Runway is always looking for new faces" I suddenly realised what she was saying, from the look of surprise on Kate's face she got it as well.

"Um thank you Ms Priestly, but I'm just a detective" I smiled carefully.

"And I manage the media for the LAPD" Miranda nodded slowly.

"Old adages about books and their covers come to mind" Andrea leaned in, her voice full of curiosity.

"What about the others, are they cops too?" I smiled.

"Everyone here bar Rick is in law enforcement, well he is too I guess. Jane and Kate here…" I indicated her with my hand. "…are homicide detectives while Maura's a medical examiner, Anastasia's a special agent with the FBI, then you add in Alex and Liv here…" As I watched I saw Miranda get a distant, contemplative look in her eye, just for a moment. I wasn't the only one; the others saw it as well; Andrea just smiled and nodded to Miranda in a conversation without words, Alex however was a little more demonstrative.

"No Miranda, no way. I don't know what you're planning but the answers absolutely not" Miranda threw her a dismissive wave.

"Oh don't be such a stick in the mud Alex, a feature on women in law enforcement, think of the favorable publicity. No need to search for suitably photogenic subjects, here we are surrounded by so many of them, it would be wonderful" Alex wasn't convinced.

"I don't know about the others, but I don't think Liv would be all that comfortable being in an article like that, she spends her life trying to put sex crimes offenders behind bars. Last thing she needs is a glamour article on her" Olivia nodded in agreement as Kate shrugged.

"I had to do an article with Cosmo back not long after Castle started working with us, it took me a while to live that one down" Miranda smiled soothingly, obviously used to convincing potential subjects to trust her.

"I doubt it did any lasting harm and almost certainly did some good" Kate pulled a small face.

"Maybe" From my point of view I wasn't so sure it was a bad idea actually all things considered. In my role I had to see things from the media's perspective and I could certainly see the upside, especially if I could get positive coverage for the LAPD which after all was my job. That thought brought another idea to mind.

"If you are serious about that article, perhaps you might be interested in the two most senior women in the LAPD" I fished my phone out of my clutch and flipped through to the photo albums before opening the 'Friends album. Resolutely bypassing some of the more risqué shots I pulled up an image of Brenda and Sharon taken at Blush's last little black dress night; they looked happy and beautiful together, making me smile as I passed the phone across to Miranda.

"Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson and Commander Sharon Raydor, head of the LAPD's Major Crimes and Force Investigation Divisions respectively" Miranda's brows shot skywards.

"Oh my, this is looking more and more like an excellent idea" She gestured Andrea over and got her to look at the image. Andrea's eyes widened and she looked at me.

"That's your boss? Wow" I retrieved the phone she offered and smiled as Kate leaned in to have a look, her eyebrows rising in surprise, before I answered Andrea's enquiry.

"Well, Jane's boss actually, but yeah, they're both great officers, the two most senior female officers in Southern California law enforcement" I suddenly noticed that Alex was giving me the evil eye; realising she was hoping to get out from under the article I smiled and gave her an exit.

"I'm sure that we all know interesting and attractive female officers, not just in our own jurisdictions but in other ones as well. Alex, do you know anyone you'd recommend?" Alex opened her mouth and then shut it, as she gave me a piercing look through narrowed eyes, before a slow smile appeared.

"As a matter of fact I do, there's a great Federal Prosecutor I know in the US Attorney's office up in Washington, Abbie Carmichael; she'd be absolutely perfect" I nodded, mostly at how enthusiastic Alex was for this Abbie person to be involved. Kate looked around at us and shrugged.

"I know this really good FBI agent, a profiler who works to stop serial killers, her name's Jordan Shaw, she'd be great for your feature as well" Miranda nodded, with an aside to Emily to take down names. Emily fished out her phone and was soon adding the names to a list. Calling over the others we explained that Runway was considering a feature and we should nominate colleagues we knew of or had heard of.

"There are these guys at the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit" It was Jane. "In particular there's this profiler who helps police understand how serial killers think, her name's Jennifer Jareau" She spelt it out. "She'd be great, really pretty too" Olivia nodded.

"I can suggest another one for you. Her name's Stella Bonasera" She spelled it out as well. "She used to be number two at the New York Crime Lab before taking up a job running the New Orleans Crime Lab, they're the people who use science and forensics to solve crimes and that's pretty interesting. She's a striking Greek woman, really switched on and good looking"

"I have another suggestion that may be of interest" It was Maura. "There is a colleague of mine; I have attended lectures where she has provided rather fascinating insights into her work. Her name is Doctor Temperance Brennan, she is a forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institute's Forensic Sciences Department, identifying victims from their remains and helping reconstruct crimes for law enforcement agencies. I am sure Doctor Brennan would be excellent and she too is quite attractive" Ana nodded, happy to keep the ball rolling.

There's a woman in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in LA named Kensi Blye. NCIS investigate crimes involving the Navy and Marine Corps. I met her a few months back at an inter-agency meeting, I'm pretty sure she'd be fine for your article too" Alex smiled again.

"If you really want someone from my area, then I can recommend a lawyer named Serena Southerlyn, smart, good at her job and gorgeous" Castle had another to add.

"I can recommend a lady named Catherine Willows, she's a senior Crime Scene Investigator with the Las Vegas Crime Lab, we met at conference I attended for research a few years back there, she'd be excellent" We stood there for a moment, each looking at the others, as Miranda arced an imperious eyebrow at us, then slowly shook her head, either in sorrow or pity, then spoke.

"I have to say I have never met so many beautiful woman so eager to avoid being in Runway. I have the world's top models, actresses and singers literally beating a pathway to my door, all desperate to feature in my magazine and here you all are, so clearly eager to nominate someone else. I really don't know whether to be amused or insulted" We all looked around, embarrassed, before Jane cleared her throat.

"It's not that we don't think it's an honour Ms Priestly, but in our job, well sometimes it's kinda hard to be taken seriously by our fellow cops, let alone the public and suspects" Kate nodded.

"We deal with death and misery day in day out. Some of us, like Liv here; they deal with even worse things than murder" Miranda looked around at us, before chuckling, breaking any tension.

"I have an interesting collection of your colleagues so I will try them first but I do reserve the right to approach you again if they don't work out" There were nods all round before conversation started up again, while I noticed several people hovering not too far away, either trying to listen in to what was being said or waiting for a chance to get to talk to Miranda. I wasn't the only one to notice, as Rick leaned forward.

"I believe you have some people lurking who want to capture your attention" Miranda's eyebrow raised before she glanced around, then looked back at us, sighing.

"Tiresome people, financial backers of various designers looking for a favourable mention in Runway and a hedge fund manager desperate to get his latest model girlfriend to do a shoot with the magazine, never mind the fact the girl is so coked up she can barely tell you what year it is let alone turn up for a shoot on time" She took a sip of champaign, then smiled a little sardonically.

"The worst is that atrocious woman stretching out a Marc Jacobs in all the wrong places. For months she's been angling to have me attend one of her horrid dinner parties so she can invite all her friends and crow over the coup, I refuse to be some tawdry dinner accessory, I'd much rather be here with friends, so they can all twiddle their thumbs from now till doomsday for all I care" There were smiles all round at her words as Andrea laughed.

"I don't suppose one of you could arrest her for crimes against fashion and good taste, could you?" We chuckled for a moment before Olivia spoke.

"I'm kinda sure that neither of those are felonies, if they were there's plenty of people to fill the jails" There was a round of laughter, before Kate stood a little straighter.

"Heads up, Mayor Weldon at three o'clock" I turned to see a tall, handsome African-American heading our way, pausing for a moment to exchange greetings with an older couple, before striding forward with his hand outstretched.

"Rick, buddy, nice to see you again" They shook hands before he turned to Kate, smiling happily. "Kate, somehow still managing to keep him out of trouble I see" Kate smiled, ducking her head in a nod.

"With effort sir, but yes" The Mayor gave her a quick hug, before turning, his eyebrows rising and smile widening.

"Miranda! It's been far too long, it's really good to see you, how have you been keeping?" They exchanged kisses on cheeks before he stood back as they smiled happily at each other, obviously old friends.

"I'm fine thank you Robert and you?" He grinned at her.

"As well as can be expected under the circumstances, but better for seeing you and Rick here tonight" He looked round at us all. "Did you bring some of your models along with you?" There was a quick burst of laughter from the group as Miranda smiled happily.

"An amusing thought, but a group of models would be far less interesting than what we have here" She lowered her voice a trifle conspiratorially. "All most models want to talk about is who is selling the best drugs, the latest diet fad and who is sleeping with whom" She looped her arm in Mayor Weldon's and turned to face us, her voice rising. "No here we have a collection of law enforcement officers, from Boston, Seattle and New York, I had no idea that such stunning officers existed" The mayor looked round and smiled, indicating Kate with his free hand.

"I know Kate, Detective Beckett here quite well, plays a mean game of poker as my wallet can attest; plus I've heard of Alex Cabot of course" He smiled and nodded at Alex. "You're very highly regarded in the DA's office from what I'm told" I could see Alex's eyebrows rise abruptly. "So who else do we have here?" Introductions were made all round and he smiled.

"This is supposed to be my Charity Ball, so let me officially welcome you all to the event. Unofficially I'd like to say thanks for coming. Miranda and Rick here are old friends, it's good to see them both so happy" I saw his eyes flick over to Kate and Andrea for a moment as he nodded, the message not lost "Trust me, I'd love to stay and chat, I've no doubt it'd be a lot more interesting than most of the people I'll be talking to tonight, but unfortunately as it's my party, I have to circulate" He pulled a swift face, before smiling.

"I'll try and get back to you tonight. I'd like to chat with you all" I noticed a young guy, probably one of his aides, trying to attract his attention. "Yes Cory, I see you and yes, I am coming" With a smile and a wave he was gone, being led through the crowd by Cory, no doubt to see some major donor.

We broke up into small groups and chatted as I made a quick run for the nearest waiter, I needed a drink refresh. As I turned back I saw Rick and Miranda standing there talking, as I paused there for a moment, shamelessly eavesdropping.

"Ms Priestly…" She smiled a trifle enigmatically.

"Please, call me Miranda" Rick smiled, I'm sure he got away with lots with that little boy smile.

"Only if you call me Rick" Miranda nodded with a gentle smile.

"Rick"

"Miranda" They both smiled. "I might suggest that you're thinking much the same as I am" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"And what might that be?"

"That you're wishing you knew about the dress code tonight, because as ravishing as your companion looks tonight, I would imagine Andrea would look even more beautiful in a tuxedo" I had to nod to myself at that, Andrea looked gorgeous in that gown, but she'd look even better in a tux, all tall and slim. Miranda looked across to where Andrea was laughing with Maura and Emily before taking a sip of her champaign. When she looked back there was a mischievous look in her eye and her voice was soft.

"Perhaps something in white, although are you sure you're not imagining your partner in one?" They both looked over to where Kate was standing with Ana and Olivia, sharing a story. His smile said it all.

"I'm calling my tailor on Monday, I don't care what it takes I have to see her in one" They exchanged a glance before Miranda's eye returned to where Andrea was deep in conversation. A small smile appeared.

"As do I" They smiled at each other, relaxed and obviously comfortable together, it was good to see.


	40. Chapter 40

**A/N**Standard disclaimers apply: I don't own these characters though I wish I did, their ownership resides with their respective legal rights holders, I'm just grateful for the opportunity to play with them, mixing and matching

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**40 Big Apple Ball Part 3**

Natalie's viewpoint

Leaving Rick and Miranda to chat undisturbed, I smiled and resolutely moved on, joining Jane and Alex who were discussing Miranda's proposed article. I was Immediately dragged in with Alex demanding to know why I was encouraging Miranda in the first place, however I just shrugged and pointed out that I'd given her the chance to nominate other people so she should be thanking me for getting her off the hook, needless to say she didn't see it that way, not that it bothered me, getting people good publicity was what I did, even if they couldn't see it at first.

I chatted with Andrea and Emily for a bit, it turned out Emily Charlton was Miranda's personal assistant, a role Andrea had also filled at one point before taking up a job as a journalist with one of the New York papers. We chatted about journalism and magazines and fashion and parties for a while, they were both fun to talk to with Emily dishing up a nice line in bitchy gossip about the fashion industry.

At one point Emily had wandered off to talk to someone she recognised in the crowd, quietly commenting that this would probably be the only time all night it would be safe to leave Miranda to her own devices, I'd glanced over to see Miranda, Olivia and Kate chatting easily and nodded as Emily left Andrea and I to chat happily for a while about our experiences as working journo's. We spent some time comparing the way things worked for her here in New York compared to my experiences back out in Seattle and LA when we were joined by Miranda, which would have terrified me earlier, but I could see the human under the public persona, all brought out by Andrea.

While they didn't do anything as overt as hold hands, they were obviously completely comfortable in each others company, standing close and sharing a series of small, private smiles, obviously their age difference meant less than nothing. We stood there for a while as I inwardly marveled that here I was chatting with Miranda Priestly when we were joined by Maura as I saw Jane, Olivia and Kate standing together in a small group, probably chatting about police work if I was any judge, while Ana and Rick had been joined by Alex, obviously they were having fun too as I saw them laughing at something together.

Miranda and Maura actually hit it off well, discussing fabrics and styles and designers, I knew a little about it and obviously Andrea knew a lot more but Maura and Miranda were soon happily lost in their conversation, they both looked like they could have chatted all night, much to both Andrea's and my amusement as we shared a few glances, smiles and raised eyebrows. I really liked Andrea, she was completely unpretentious, very down to earth and had a dry sense of humour, given the sort of life Miranda obviously led I wondered if that had been part of what had attracted her to Andrea. Sure she was beautiful, but Miranda lived her life surrounded by beautiful people, it would take more than looks to attract her attention, the more I talked to her the more I could see it was her personality that stood out.

That got me thinking about Miranda and what had attracted Andrea to her. The force of the personality evident in Miranda even from the little I'd seen tonight was a little intimidating, she was powerful and used to weilding that power, to the point it was probably unconscious now, I could see the attraction there, power was an aphrodesiac and Miranda weilded it in spades, but there was more there, much more.

There was obviously an age difference between them of course, a good fifteen years or more I guessed, but they were very much in synch, 'attuned' to one another I guess, they seemed to know when the other was looking at them, their eyes meeting no matter what they were doing, how in harmony they were to each other, always with one eye on the other. It was obvious to anyone watching them that Andrea was devoted to Miranda, something that appeared to be equally returned, given how Miranda behaved around her in return, something that made me smile. Miranda Priestly really was human under all that Couture and power and reputation.

I could see lots of people constantly glancing our way, many of them frowning to see Miranda spending so much time with a bunch of unknowns, some of them obviously wanting time with her but equally aware that breaking in uninvited to the conversation would very quickly get them Miranda's very cold shoulder, something they probably didn't want to risk. Andrea must have picked up on it as well, she leaned over, her voice dry.

"Don't worry, they're not selling voodoo dolls of you yet, so you should be safe, at least for tonight" I nodded slowly, sipping my Champaign and then leaned in, my voice soft.

"Is it always like this?" She nodded, her voice equally quiet.

"Oh yeah, these things are usually as much work as a day in the Runway offices, people to meet, deals to be done, politics to be played, it's how the game's played" I pursed my lips, thinking it over.

"Sound's exhausting" I got a flash of dark eyes and a sardonic smile.

"You have no idea, I get sick of these things, mostly come to support Miranda" She shrugged elegantly. "We do meet interesting people from time to time..." Her lips curled into a lovely small smile. "Tonight's a really great case in point..." I smiled happily at her inference as she continued. "...but normally it's something you just have to do as part of the job" She glanced around, the smile falling away. "Everybody wants something from her, it's all about what she can do for them" I nodded, there were aspects of my job I didn't like, but I didn't get trapped into this sort of function all that often, something I was suddenly glad of.

"Good thing you're here then, I guess you spend a lot of time running interference?"

"Emily and I both, something that fortunately isn't required tonight" We shared a smile as I raised my glass.

"Glad to be able to help" She smiled and raised her own as we shared a look, before Olivia wandered over and the discussion turned to other things.

Eventually however Miranda, Andrea and Emily had to take their leave, they had to make an appearance at two other parties tonight, before heading home. I could tell that they would rather stay here but their attendance was as much about work as pleasure, particularly for Miranda.

I noticed that as they left Rick had button-holed them, chatting to them for a minute of so, before passing a card across, getting laughter and smiles as I wondered what he was up to. Rick struck me as the sort who'd always be up to something, he was full of life and laughter and it was obvious he doted on Kate, his eyes often seeking her out and a small smile appearing when he did, even as I found myself chatting to Kate and Maura.

"So what's it like being partner to Rick Castle, famous author" Kate smiled at my question.

"It's never boring. Exasperating, frustrating, annoying, but never boring" Maura nodded, listening quietly as I asked a question which had been bothering me since we'd been introduced.

"Do you cop much in the way of grief for the whole Nikki Heat thing?" She glanced over to where Rick was chatting to Ana, he was asking her some questions about the Bureau, maybe research for a character perhaps, then pursed her lips.

"Sometimes, but on the other hand they're some of his biggest selling books, so the success is nice" Maura nodded.

"Well those books do tend to spend a considerable time on the top of the national and international best seller lists when they are released so he is obviously doing something right" Kate just leaned in and spoke in a low voice.

"Just don't tell him that, it's bad enough with the whole Nikki Heat success thing, his ego is bad enough, don't swell it any more" We shared a smile before Maura spoke.

"Well, it just makes him realise how reliant he is on his inspiration, his 'muse' as he put it" Kate rolled her eyes a little.

"I need to find ways to keep him line, he's a contradiction. At times he's a mature, grown man, strong, capable and dependable, at others he's like an eight year old on a sugar rush; it drives me crazy at times" I smiled even wider, I liked Kate, she was great, tall, beautiful and possessed of an irreverent streak of humour I found appealing.

"But here you are, on his arm, dressed to kill" She shrugged and then smiled as Alex joined us, sipping her drink as we chatted.

"Yeah well, he's always very, very agreeable for days when I get dressed up like this, so I don't mind too much" Alex smiled at her.

"So you're reminding him of all the good reasons why he should listen to you and do what you want. Inspiration so to speak" Alex nodded as Kate smirked.

"Yeah, got to keep him in line" I felt a wicked smile appear as an idea occurred to me.

"Heh, I have an idea" Maura turned her head slightly away from me to one side, peering back at me out of the corner of her eye, it was a habit she had that I found quite endearing.

"Natalie, I know that look and tone of voice, what exactly are you planning?" I ignored her comment as I turned to Kate.

"Kate, just run with this, ok, but I can guarantee that he'll be eating out of the palm of your hand for weeks, if not months" She looked a little uncertain.

"What are you gonna do?" I leaned in a little closer and spoke a little quieter.

"Nothing too bad, just flirt like crazy with you" Her eyebrows jumped as I smiled. "It's ok, he's a guy, he doesn't stand a chance, trust me" She just looked at me, taking in Maura and Alex's smiles; I knew my adopted sisters would back me up, before gently nodding as I stepped closer and turned her towards our target. "C'mon" We strolled over to where Castle was chatting to Ana who was still enthralled to be talking to one of her all-time favourite authors; I was going to tease her endlessly about this later. He saw the four of us coming and turned to take us in as well.

"Pardon me Rick, I was chatting to Kate about the character of Nikki Heat" He turned and smiled at Kate, he really did love her, you could just tell, before looking at me with the warm afterglow of that smile.

"Two of my favourite people in the same sentence" I nodded.

"I was wondering if I could ask you a question about your concept of Nikki Heat" He nodded agreeably.

"Of course"

"Is Nikki straight?" I thought he was going to choke on his drink as I saw Ana's eyes grow wide for a second, before they narrowed; oh yes, she realised I was up to something. Finally Rick spoke.

"Is she…? Well that's been the way I've written the character" I pouted, just a little, even as I saw Alex and Maura swallowing grins.

"What a shame, that closes off a whole line of characterisation, not to mention reinforcing gender stereotypes" His head lifted as did an eyebrow as he looked at me, he was wondering where I was going with this. I smiled as innocently as I could manage as I spoke.

"I mean, I'm sure that the character's development could be helped by exploring some of their interactions with others" He sounded uncertain.

"You mean bring gay characters into the books?" I smiled, moving closer to Kate.

"Possibly, or making Nikki a little more…open" he smiled slightly nervously, we were talking about a character based very closely on his girlfriend, he could see this going all kinds of wrong in front of him.

"I mean Nikki's written as very beautiful, I'm sure she'd attract attention from both genders. It's only natural" I reached out and slowly brushed a wisp of hair behind Kate's ear, getting a delightfully small shy smile from Kate in return. Rick was frozen, not sure what was happening. I slowly let the backs of my fingers trail across Kate's cheek as she leaned into the touch for a second, her eyes hooded and darkening, before I let my hand come to rest on her shoulder, turning so that I was standing next to her.

"Are you sure it wouldn't add something to the character, a dalliance perhaps, a scandalous liaison?" He swallowed as I moved my arm across her shoulders to the other side and gently angled her towards me. Kate flashed a look at him from under her lashes before smiling, her voice soft and breathy.

"What do you say Rick, That might add some interest to the character's personality. You did say she could be a little…slutty" Rick just swallowed audibly as I lifted my right hand to her left, our fingertips matching up, before they slid together and entwined as I leaned forward until my temple rested against hers, Kate's scent was lovely and her hair was soft and sleek, before we turned our heads together to look at him.

Rick was wearing a weird expression, halfway between '_oh god, yes_' and '_oh shit, no_'. I felt a little sorry for him, caught between lust and terror but it didn't stop me teasing him a bit more. I stepped back, bringing her hand up to my lips and leaving a lingering kiss, seeing the flash of amusement in her eyes before stepping slowly away.

"I understand that perhaps a media person may not fit the story" I reached out and snagged Maura's hand, bringing her and Kate together. "As a detective, Nikki must meet all sorts of fascinating, stunning women, like Medical Examiners" With a smile Maura slid her arm around Kate's waist and leaned her head against the taller woman's shoulder, Kate in turn sliding her arm around Maura's slim waist.

Rick's brain was obviously having trouble firing, as he stood there, slowly nodding.

"Yeah…" I smiled; our games were having the desired effect. I reached out a hand, with Alex taking mine and letting me lead her to Kate's other side, where she rested her right hand on Kate's left shoulder and then leaned in, resting her chin on it, her head close to Kate's as Kate shot her a sultry glance.

"Or beautiful lawyers perhaps"

Over behind Rick I could see Jane and Olivia were desperately trying to stifle their laughter, they'd obviously seen what we were doing and loving it. Ana had guessed what was happening almost as soon as we'd started and I could see her biting her lip, I looked to her and saw her wink, she wanted to play. Both Alex and Maura had levelled sultry gazes on Kate, who had a wicked smile on her face, glancing from one to the other, before sending Rick a look that probably had him uncomfortably hard, as if he wasn't already.

"On the other hand, perhaps a sexy Special Agent might work better" I reached out and Ana took my hand, as I walked her over to join the group. Ana was shorter than both Kate and Alex, so she snuggled up against Kate, held between Kate and Alex. I could see the devilment in Kate's eyes and amusement in the others; poor Rick's brain was still trying to catch up.

"Uh yeah..." I saw Jane wink at me as she walked over, then smile as she reached for Maura's hand.

"Sorry Rick, you can write all you want but this particular stunning ME is taken" Maura smiled at Jane's words, stretching up and placing a chaste kiss on Kate's cheek, before taking Jane's hand and stepping into her, settling happily within her embrace.

Rick just nodded, his brain obviously starting to catch up, his eyes hooded, dark and full of desire. Olivia patted him on the shoulder as she stepped up to Alex, taking Alex's outstretched hand and bringing it to her lips, before gently pulling her into her arms.

"Same goes for beautiful District Attorney's as well I'm afraid" Alex smiled, before blowing a kiss at Kate who smirked evilly, she could see what this was doing to Rick and you could just tell she was going to milk this for everything it was worth in the future. I smiled as I looked over Kate and Ana, arms around each other; they looked damned good together though Kate was several inches taller, even without the heels. As they stood there, with their heads together, I felt the slightest touch of jealousy,

Kate was stunning and Ana looked so good with her in her tuxedo, even though I knew she was mine and Kate and Rick were together, I still felt a little jealous before common sense reaffirmed itself and I stepped up to claim Ana's hand.

Ana smiled at me, before leaning in and whispering something in Kate's ear, getting a gentle laugh in return, before she took my hand and pulled me close, then turning to Rick.

"Sorry Rick, seems we're all spoken for, looks like Nikki Heat goes home with Damian Rook after all" Rick smiled at us all, before stepping up to Kate and taking her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing it gently, getting a soft smile from Kate in return before she leaned in and whispered something in his ear that brought out a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

The rest of the Ball passed in a bit of a blur, more and more people stopping by to chat, drawn no doubt by Rick's presence. Mayor Weldon did indeed make it back, chatting to us all for a few minutes until being dragged away again. Before we knew it we noticed the crowd was starting to thin out, signaling it was time to go. For a moment I was sad, it'd been a wonderful night, we'd met some fascinating people, Rick and Kate were lovely, meeting Miranda and Andrea and Emily had been great and the Ball had been even better than I could have ever hoped, it was a shame it had to end.

I turned to where Liv and Kate were standing, it had been so good to see them catch up, some of their stories from years ago had us in stitches; the one thing that came through though was how they obviously cared for each other. I smiled, probably a little sadly.

"It's been a great night guys, totally worth the trip" They smiled back happily as Kate spoke.

"Yeah, it's been lovely to meet you all" I sighed.

"It's a shame it has to end" I was surprised by a sly voice over my left shoulder.

"That would be where you would be wrong my dear Natalie" It was Rick. "I know a cosy little place where the drinks flow freely, the company is always great and the bar stays open as long as we want"

"Sounds great, but it's getting late" I checked my watch, it was almost midnight. "I don't know how long this place of yours will be open" He laughed as he moved to stand next to Kate and slid his arm round her waist.

"I can guarantee that the Old Haunt will stay open as long as we need, however late that may be" Liv chuckled.

"Let me guess, you know the owner" Rick just smirked.

"I am the owner"


	41. Chapter 41

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**41 Soulful Nights**

Miranda's viewpoint

With a sigh I settled back into the car, more and more I found these nights of gallivanting from one function to another, 'flying the Runway flag' so to speak, to be tedious, tiresome and torturous. It's only the fact that it's almost a requirement of the role, plus that we occasionally meet interesting people, that allows me to undertake them with some measure of equanimity.

I turned to see Andrea settling beside me, her hand naturally seeking out mine. Having her with me was one of the reasons I could face the evening with anything like appreciation, the simple joy of having her close, someone I could just be myself with. We often found ourselves sharing a silent conversation about people we met on these nights, her expressive eyes could recount sentences with a glance and I could always count on her to see the bright side of every situation.

It also helped that she seemed to naturally attract interesting people to her; some people came because we were together, but many more came to talk to her, the sort of people not afraid of Miranda Priestly and Runway, people that Andrea enjoyed talking to. More than one very good story had been born from these conversations, some for her role with the Mirror, others for Runway; Andrea had a good eye for a story and I usually took her advice when she felt something was promising.

Roy caught my eye in the rear view mirror.

"Home Ms Priestly?" I turned to Andrea and raised an eyebrow, getting a smile in return before I asked the question.

"Should we take up Richard Castle's offer?" At my words her smile turned cheeky.

"Yes please! We haven't seen Alex and Olivia in a while and their friends were fun" I nodded and turned, reaching into my clutch I pulled out Richard Castle's card, flipping it over to see the handwritten address there and leaned forward, passing it to Roy.

"Please take us to this address" He took one look, nodded and handed it back. I looked across at Emily who was turned in the front seat, looking back at us. "Afterwards I can get Roy to take you home or you may accompany us if you wish" Emily smiled, the curiosity evident in her eyes.

"May I ask where we're going?"

"We have been invited to a very private after party at Richard Castle's bar, the Old Haunt" Emily's eyes widened for a moment before she schooled herself back to calm.

"I would love to accompany you, thank you for the offer" I nodded, inviting Emily had been Andrea's idea, however she had also enjoyed meeting Alex and Olivia and their diverse group of friends.

We made our way through the late night New York traffic, finally coming to a rest in front of a row of shops, with the Old Haunt announced by a simple hanging sign. Stepping out, we sent Roy home for the evening, despite his concern for our safety. Andrea had laughed happily, leaning over to kiss his cheek; she always had been the tactile, uninhibited one.

"We're going to be surrounded by cops so I think we'll be safe, but thank you Roy" Andrea extended her arm and we stepped down a flight of stairs, knocking once as I looked in. The bar itself was dimly lit, quaint and rustic, with movement visible as Richard Castle approached, unlocking the door and welcoming us in with a smile.

"Hey, I'm really glad you could come" The simple honesty in his words was a welcome surprise, I'm far too used to the false utterances and flattery of so many of the people I meet each day, that real sincerity is something I have come to appreciate. He leaned forward and took my hand, bringing it to his lips, before doing the same to Andrea and Emily, his manners were both a surprise and a delight and I found myself smiling.

"Thank you for inviting us" He smiled again, oh he was a charmer, handsome and charming, I could understand why that pretty detective had fallen for him. There was also a lack of guile about him I found appealing, someone who could find mirth in much of life. He stepped to one side, his arm beckoning us to walk further in, where we found a small party in full swing.

They warmly welcomed us all, Alex and Olivia, the two couples from Boston and Seattle, now apparently resident in Los Angeles, plus Kate Beckett and Rick Castle. I found it interesting that they were just as welcoming to Andrea and Emily as I, too many people saw only the editor of Runway and ignored the others, here we were accepted as equals, welcomed for who, not what, we were.

I found them all to be interesting company, with a wide diversity of backgrounds and personalities, what bound them together however were how clearly devoted to each other each couple was. I'd grown used to seeing it with Alex and Olivia, at first I hadn't known what to expect when Alex had informed me that she was seeing a colleague, let alone a woman, however their happiness had encouraged me to pursue Andrea after she had left Runway, a decision for which I gave regular thanks.

Now, looking at the other couples, I could see the closeness, the connection they had with each other. Something I admired and knew I had found with Andrea, despite our differences we were together because we had chosen to overcome those differences to be with each other. Honestly I had rarely ever been happier than I was with Andrea.

Over the next hour we mingled freely, any earlier reservations I may have had dissolving as we chatted. I found it interesting that the stories they told were as often self-depreciating or embarrassing, clearly they felt that had no need to protect their reputations from each other, instead laughing with, not at, each other. I entertained the passing thought of a party full of my peers, standing there telling them a personally embarrassing story, for a moment I shuddered; no, I far preferred the people here in a quaint bar in New York, drinking surprisingly good white wine, anytime.

Looking around I saw Andrea and Maura laughing together and Olivia nodding happily at a story Rick Castle was recalling, while Emily, Natalie and Alexandra were smiling at something Kate was telling them. I smiled and brought my attention back to my two detective companions, only to see that both of them were watching me. I smiled a trifle nervously, embarrassed that I may have missed something.

"I am terribly sorry, I was distracted, would you please mind repeating that?" Both detectives smiled, turning slightly to look over the rest of the party, before Jane Rizzoli nodded.

"Completely understandable" Anastasia Romanov nodded as well.

"I can see why you'd be distracted" I looked back at them but they were not even looking at me, their eyes had sought out their partners across the room before Ana looked back at me. "Andrea's a beautiful woman" I smiled; she was indeed beautiful, inside and out.

"I am very fortunate indeed" Jane nodded as she looked back at me from gazing at her partner.

"I feel the same way" Ana nodded as well.

"Same here" She smiled. "How did you two get together?" I thought about it for a second and chose to be honest, I realised they would not judge me.

"It was not long after Alexandra and Olivia became a couple. I have known Alex for many years; we'd met at a number of fashion events over the years. She seemed very happy with Olivia and I wondered if I might have overlooked an opportunity myself, as Andrea had recently left Runway to take up a role as a journalist with the Mirror. I found myself missing her presence and reached out to her" I sighed gently, so much time lost… "It took some time, I had been a...difficult person to work for, despite Andrea's outstanding work for me" I smiled a little sadly, remembering all that had transpired during the eight months Andrea had been my assistant.

"We spent some time together talking over a series of dinners and lunches, as we carefully reached out, first as friends, then as more" I smiled happily. "We had been caught by one of the tiresome paparazzi exiting a restaurant and the gossip had started. I was concerned that it may place a strain on our developing friendship, however Alex had seen the image and invited us both over for a casual dinner. Seeing them both together, so openly happy and content provided us with the impetus to move forward" I smiled softly at the memory, we'd started out sitting on their lounge side by side, but during the evening we'd found ourselves moving closer and closer together. By the end of the night Andrea had her head on my shoulder and I had her hand in mine, small steps but from there we both knew where we wanted this to go. "I owe Alex and Olivia a great debt of thanks for their example, encouragement and support" Both nodded before Anastasia spoke.

"They're great people, they've been really good friends in the time we've known them" Jane nodded.

"Yeah, it helps that Maura, Alex and Natalie are thick as thieves" I nodded, having already picked up the three blonde's closeness throughout the evening. I was about to say something when I saw Rick Castle walking our way with devilment in his eyes.

"Ladies, we've been discussing the Old Haunt and its history and I was just explaining that we've recently installed some new equipment to attract mid-week customers and it would be a shame not to give it a try" We all looked at him with confusion. "A brand new, state of the art karaoke machine" I leaned back and looked at him with surprise.

"Karaoke, surely not?" He laughed, obviously loving the idea.

"Why not? It's something we're all equally bad at, so it's something we all have in common" I looked up to see the others had wandered over to listen. There was a bit of objecting, nothing too serious though, before Rick leaned into Kate and said something that had her smiling shyly.

"Can anyone play piano?" I saw looks all round before finally at Maura Isles' urging, Jane nodded, somewhat reluctantly.

"I can, used to be ok, now though..." She held up her hands, flexing them slightly as I carefully schooled my features to not show my concern at the damage to them, whatever must have happened had to have been terrible. "Maybe Maura, she's better than I am, especially at anything difficult…" Rick walked over to her and smiled, putting his arm around her shoulders as he steered Jane to the well maintained upright piano off to one side. I don't know what he whispered in her ear because she gave a nod and a small, nervous smile.

Rick flipped through a collection of sheet music books for a few seconds, before handing one to Jane, who looked it over for a moment and nodded carefully, setting it up and flexing her fingers. Rick looked up and beckoned Kate over.

"C'mon Beckett, it's my idea so I might as well kick it off and if I'm going to make a fool of myself you're going with me" She shook her head but sauntered over to him, leaning in to say something just for him, smiles breaking out on both of them. They turned to Jane and she took a breath and nodded, setting her fingers on the keys then let them flow as a familiar set of chords rang out, as Rick started to sing.

"_It's nine o'clock on a Saturday and the regular crowd shuffles in_" He nodded to Kate and she joined him.

"_There's an old man sitting next to me, making love to his tonic and gin_"

By the time they'd finished everyone was singing along, the room filled with laughter, I'd found myself singing and smiling along with them, they were happy and unselfconscious and everyone was simply here to have a good time. Turning I saw Andrea smiling back at me, seeing her that happy relaxed me, we were here together, no one to judge us, no one ready to sell us out to the gossip columns tomorrow, none of them were those sort of people, so I sat back and let myself be carried with the flow, tonight was for fun and for once I was willing to let myself go. With the ice broken by our hosts, Rick looked around for the next victim.

"The system has several hundred thousand tracks from the 50s onwards, so there's bound to be something there for everyone" He pointed to a corner where something looking somewhat like a glass sheet music stand stood amongst several stools and a microphone stand. "The text appears on the screen, it's like a teleprompter, I mean if it's good enough for the President..." He held up the microphone. "This is the microphone on / off button and this second one starts the backing track. You can even enter how many people are singing and it color codes the text for each singer" We stood around for a moment before Natalie took the offered microphone and handed it to Anastasia.

"C'mon Tsarina, I think you should do it" her partner shook her head.

"No way Blondie, I'm not doing this on my own" Maura just smiled and turned to Jane and Olivia.

"Olivia and Jane certainly would not want you to be up there on your own. I am sure they will be happy to help you out" She looked up into Jane's eyes and smiled. "You will help Anastasia please darling?" I saw Jane sigh, she knew she was beaten, making me smile to myself, what was that expression I had heard Emily tell Andrea once... oh yes, that's right; '_whipped_'.

Despite their reluctance, pushed by their girlfriends, the three detectives stood up and walked over to the makeshift stage, spending a few minutes searching the song list on the teleprompter, amid much heated discussion, before finally agreeing on something as we chatted idly, waiting to see what they would choose. Stepping up Olivia wiped her palms on her pants before taking up the microphone.

"Well, our turn I suppose" She looked around, her nervousness evident to us all. "This is an old standard, but it kinda works for our voices maybe, I don't know about these two but I can't sing worth a damn" The drums started, followed by a familiar guitar riff as I nodded; Joan Jett, indeed an old standard. Olivia swallowed then started; the nervousness in her voice obvious.

'_I saw her dancin' there by the record machine, I knew she must a been about seventeen_" I saw Alex clapping wildly, her face wreathed in a smile stretching from ear to ear as Olivia saw it and grinned, her voice growing in strength and confidence.

"_The beat was going strong, playing my favorite song and I could tell it wouldn't be long till she was with me, yeah me an I could tell it wouldn't be long till she was with me, yeah me, singing..._" Jane and Anastasia chimed in on the chorus; "_I love rock n' roll so put another dime in the jukebox, baby, I love rock n' roll so come and take your time and dance with me_"

By the time they'd finished they'd regained the confidence I'd seen them show earlier, helped by the raucous laughter and cheers from the rest of us. Alex jumped up on the makeshift stage, grabbing Liv and kissing her, offering hearty congratulations for a job well done. I found myself smiling, those two lived for each other, they were each other's true completion and they made each other whole, something I'd seen the very first time I met them.

Other people were intimidated by Miranda Priestly, not Olivia, all she cared about was protecting Alex, I'd seen it right away and envied Alex such unrestrained, all-consuming love, it wasn't until Andrea and I become lovers that I realised just how lucky Alex and Olivia were and how much I'd missed out on. I turned to see Andrea laughing and smiling at Kate and Emily, before she turned to me and her smile changed, becoming the one she saved just for me.

"Do you think we should sing?" I smiled indulgently.

"You my darling can sing, I struggle to hold a tune in a sack, I will retire and leave the stage to you" She looked a little forlorne for a moment before Emily took her hand and tugged her towards the stage. I had to smile; Emily and Andrea had become firm friends after her departure from Runway, something that was a problem for all of the second assistants who had tried to fill Andrea's shoes, all suffered from the terminal flaw of not being Andrea. She could be a terror to the new girls, driving them to the level of excellence that Andrea had delivered.

They stood there for a minute or so, working their way through the choices, before finally agreeing on a track. Stepping back Emily clipped the microphone into its stand and smiled.

"This one should be good fun, plus the words are nice and simple, perfect for Andie and I, especially given we've been drinking for a while" With that she reached out and threw her arm around Andrea, pulling them close as they grinned at each other, before she reached up and pushed the button on the microphone, filling the room with a loud drumming, as the opening bars of a tune I had not heard for a while rang out, Emily as lead singer with Andrea as backing singer, singing the refrain.

"_I know you like me" _followed by Andrea's refrain_; "I know you like me_" I saw people starting to clap as they sang.

"_I know you do; I know you do_"

"_That's why whenever I come around she's all over you; she's all over you_"

I was surprised, Emily had a rather good singing voice, much better than I expected, while Andrea was the right choice for back-up. I had to break into a smile as they belted out the chorus, both leaning into the mike and swaying together, arms around each other's shoulders.

"_Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me? Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?_" Laughter and cheers broke out and I turned to see what had happened.

"_Don't cha? Don't cha?_" Kate Beckett was singing and swaying on her stool, arms above her head and a huge grin on her face as her boyfriend stood there with an appreciative grin. Meanwhile Natalie and Alex were laughing and dancing between Ana and Olivia, huge grins on their faces, getting cheers as they did.

"_Don't cha wish your girlfriend was raw like me? Don't cha wish your girlfriend was fun like me?_" I had to admit, I'd rarely seen Alex look as relaxed and carefree, obviously she was at ease with her friends in a way I'd previously only seen with Olivia. Turning back I caught Andrea's eye and smiled even wider, getting a cheeky grin in return as she sang.

"_Don't cha? Don't cha?_"

The rest of the song was a riot, with cheering, clapping and laughter, before they brought the song to a close with the chorus, the final bars coming to a close as they wound up, hugging each other to fresh applause, before she practically skipped over to me.

"How was that?" I smiled, getting a kiss before I could speak.

"You were wonderful, you have a talent I wasn't previously aware of" She grinned happily, before reaching out and snagging Emily, pulling her in.

"It's all thanks to Em, she was great" I had to agree.

"Indeed you were. Emily, where did you learn to sing?" She shrugged, trying to play it down.

"Oh, I had to do something at school, so it was either choir or home economics and you know how much I hate cooking so choir it was" I nodded, I could tell there was more there than she was telling, but made a note for Andrea to worm it out of her in due course. We were interrupted as several others made their way over to add to the congratulations, drawing happy smiles from both of them.

Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles wandered over to add their congratulations before Jane looked down at Maura.

"Well, we made fools of ourselves, it's your turn now" Despite her protests and those of Alex and Natalie, they were soon packed off to select a song as the rest of us chatted happily.

I smiled into my surprisingly good wine, watching the interactions around me, seeing the laughter and teasing between Alex and her two friends, Maura and Natalie, they were obviously close, standing around the screen, looking for something they could all sing.

"So how do you know them all?" At Emily's question I turned back to Kate Beckett, who was standing there with a wine in hand, smiling at the group as Emily looked up at the much taller detective.

"I don't actually, tonight's the first time I've met any of them, with the exception of Liv" She smiled. "We were partners as beat cops, a long time ago" Emily's eyes widened in surprise.

"Really, you seem to get on so well" At that Kate smiled.

"I trust Olivia Benson with my life, have done before actually, her judgment with people's pretty good so if she says they're good people, I believe her" I nodded, wondering about that level of trust, I really only had a small handful of people I trusted like that, Andrea of course, Nigel at Runway, my daughters, no one else really, not to that level. I wondered about the bond that police partners form, it was obviously strong, or perhaps it was just the one between Kate and Olivia. Either way it was interesting to see. I turned as I heard a tapping over the sound system, to see the three blondes had obviously made their selection and were standing together on stage.

"Excuse me everyone" It was Natalie. I thought it might be; she seemed the most outgoing and exuberant of the three. ""We argued a bit…" she cast a mock glare at Alex, getting a wholly undignified tongue poked back at her as we laughed. "…well some of us did, Maura's far too nice to do anything as pedestrian as argue" There was more laughter at that. "...before we came up with something we could all agree on" Looking at her companions they both nodded and she thumbed the button on the microphone, starting the music as raucous guitars filled the room.

"_Let's go girls_" I cocked my head for a moment, wondering what it was, it felt familiar as Natalie's voice rang out; full of sultry warmth.

"_I'm going out tonight, I'm feelin' alright, gonna let it all hang out_" I heard cheering and saw Olivia and Ana high five-ing as Jane cheered. I suddenly realised what the song was and smiled, appreciating the all too delicious subtext. "_Wanna make some noise, really raise my voice, yeah, I wanna scream and shout_" I laughed, seeing the three beautiful blondes up on stage, Natalie singing as Maura and Alex grinned fit to burst.

"_No inhibitions, make no conditions, get a little outta line. I ain't gonna act politically correct, I only wanna have a good time_" There was a burst of cheering and clapping, they were having a wonderful time and it showed. As the chorus came up, all three leaned in to the mike and sang, perhaps more enthusiastically than talented but they were having too much fun to care as I saw the smiles and laughter around the room, with much of the room joining in on the final line of the chorus.

"_Man! I feel like a woman!_" Looking around I saw Emily and Kate laughing happily at the sight, before I felt an arm go round my waist as Andrea snuggled in, she leaned in and gave me a quick kiss, before leaning in to speak into my ear.

"I just have to agree" Andrea then pulled back with a chuckle, no doubt at my expression, before leaning in again to place a gentle kiss on my lips.

Their song finally ended amid laughter and celebration, as the blondes accepted kisses and hugs from their partners, before being handed fresh drinks by Rick Castle. Taking a sip of a white wine Alex looked over at me.

"So Miranda, I think it's your turn" I blinked.

"Me? You must be joking" Alex just smiled, that wicked smile she has when she know's she's pushing but still going to get what she wants.

"Yep, your turn, if I can make a fool of myself up there, so can you" She produced the microphone from behind her back and handed it to me before stepping back, leaving me there as I looked round. There were smiles and nods, plenty of encouragement and no one judging me. I frowned; I couldn't do this, of course not. I felt a hand on my shoulder then Andrea leaned in, her voice soft and warm.

"Please Miranda, for me?" I looked at her, seeing the softness and love in her eyes and smiled, I really had trouble saying no to her when she looked at me like that, a power over me I don't think she realised she held.

With the exaggerated sigh of the much put upon I stood up and wandered over to the machine, using the touch screen to scroll down through the available selections, seeing nothing in popular music I liked or even recognised, before tapping the menu for 80s tracks. Seconds later a track leaped out at me, I remembered the song; I'd loved it at the time. My voice was nothing like Susanna Hoffs but I remembered the words and the rhythm and that was half the battle.

Selecting the track I turned and partially sat on the stool, I had a clear view of the screen and the audience, a light above me worked like a spotlight as I smiled to myself, the last time I'd sung this song was driving somewhere more than a decade ago, listening to the radio for traffic reports and hearing it come up, that was a far cry from here in front of others though...

I looked up and saw Andrea there, her eyes shining and a huge smile on her face and I smiled back, I might be nervous, but for Andrea I could do this, I would do anything for her. I pushed the button on the microphone and heard the music start, the words appearing on the screen as I sang, soft and low to suit the song's underlying meaning.

"_Close your eyes, give me your hand darling, can you feel my heart beating, do you understand_" I saw Andrea's mouth fall open as her face transformed.

"_Do you feel the same, am I only dreaming, is this burning, an eternal flame..._"

The room was utterly silent as I sang, not a judgmental silence, more a warm, respectful one, I could see the smiles and nods as people followed the song, my voice soft and low. I looked back to Andrea and saw her standing there, a wondering smile on her face, oblivious to the tears slowly falling down her cheeks as Emily stood next to her, an arm around her shoulder, giving her comfort.

Emily herself was watching me with an expression I didn't recognise, but one far from her usual snarky self that I'd come to expect, this one was soft and longing, perhaps she was truly seeing how much I cared for Andrea, that I'd even make a fool of myself in front of others, singing for her, just to make her happy.

Finally it came to an end, before the room erupted in clapping and cheers, the others obviously realising that I had done something quite out of the ordinary here tonight. Stepping down I handed the microphone to Natalie before gathering up Andrea into my arms, placing a gentle kiss to her forehead, as she wrapped her arms around me and buried her head in my neck. We stood there for a few moments before she looked up at me, her eyes glittering in the light.

"Thank you Miranda, that was..." She swallowed before being able to speak. "That was lovely, thank you so much my love" I smiled down at her, seeing that shining, luminous look turned on me made it all worthwhile. I swallowed a tiny lump at her words before I spoke.

"I'm pleased you liked it darling. If I had to inflict my dreadful singing voice upon everyone, it should at least be something meaningful" She stood there looking into my eyes, before she slowly pulled me close.

"Oh that was full of meaning all right. I love you Miranda" Before I could say anything her mouth was on mine, her hands on my hips as she poured herself into a kiss, full of love and care and so quintessentially Andrea that I forgot about the embarrassment of singing in front of others, I'd made Andrea very happy and that was all that counts.

Over the next half hour several others stepped up to sing, Kate Beckett demonstrating a beautiful singing voice, joining with Alex in a poignient rendition of Sarah McLachlan's Angel as Jane played piano, sweet and soft and low as the night's music turned reflective.

At Maura's request, Jane stayed at the piano as the blonde stepped up behind her lover, her hands gently resting on Jane's shoulders as she performed a lovely version of the Jewel song Hands. The room was subdued for a while after that, a respectful quiet as we enjoyed the company and the magic of the moment. Tonight had turned out so differently than I could have imagined, but I would not have changed it for anything. Andrea walked over to me after talking to Kate and Rick, smiling happily; that lovely open smile that lit up a room, though I could see the excitement in her.

"Miranda, we have to use them in your article, all of them" I raised an eyebrow at her, slightly confused.

"What do you mean?" She spoke, her voice low, just for me.

"All of them, Kate and Olivia and Maura and Jane and Ana and all of them, the stories they have to tell, the cases they've solved, they've seen so much and survived so many things, you have to feature them" I smiled and nodded.

"Well, they were reluctant to be featured…" She shook her head decisively.

"No, they all have amazing stories to tell, we have to tell their stories" I smiled indulgently at her possessive tone.

"We?" She nodded, keeping her voice low.

"I'm going to do a series of articles on Kate and Olivia and Rick and Alex for the Mirror, they're here in New York and that's the Mirror's beat, but you have to cover all of them for Runway, too many amazing cases and stories, we can't not tell them"

"Very well, we'll talk about what's made you so excited later" Andrea gave me an adorable little pout, making me smile. "Tonight let's just enjoy the night, this isn't a work function, it's a night for enjoying ourselves" Her pout transformed into a smile as she slid her arm around me and pulled close, making me smile in return. We stood that way for a little while, an arm around each other, just enjoying the comfort before Emily came to join us.

"It seems that those three blondes are very persuasive…" I raised an eyebrow as Andrea cocked her head at Emily, getting a smile "…or their girlfriends aren't too good at saying no" She nodded past us "Look behind you"

I turned to look at the three brunette detectives sitting up there, perched on stools in their tuxedos with their bowties undone and top buttons open, unconsciously achieving an air of casual style and sophistication that my art directors would have killed to achieve. Looking at them there, I was reminded of black and white pictures of the 1950s 'rat pack', the same charisma, effortless style and grace was on display here and for a moment I wondered why we needed insecure or arrogant models when these three women effortlessly carried off the look so well.

They looked round at each other, looking a little sheepish to be honest, no forced cocky arrogance, just a look of nervousness that I found quite endearing. Finally Anastasia nodded at the others and smiled, before turning back to us.

"I know we did a track earlier, but it was made clear to us that had to do another; after Miranda, Kate, Alex and Maura's efforts we were told to do something a little more meaningful" She glanced across to Natalie, cocking an eyebrow at her lover before looking back to the rest of us.

"So we argued a bit before we came up with something that seemed to fit the night and the mood and the sometimes bumpy road we all took to get here together" She smiled a little nervously. "Please forgive any stuff ups, we've not rehearsed it and it's not an easy song to sing, especially given the words and the meaning"

She looked round and then nodded as the music started, soft strings swelling higher as her voice came, low and soft and surprising melodious.

"_Angels lift you off the ground; I've got shadows weighing me down. Still you believe, you believe in me, I wish I could feel that way_" Jane's low, rough voice came in as Anastasia sat back, her voice sending chills down my spine.

"_You can trust so easily, I can't give you all of me. Still your holding on, when you should be gone, I wish I was that brave_" I smiled gently, the words were soft, but you could see the impact in the faces of Alex, Natalie and Maura, each was swallowing hard, Maura and Alex unconsciously holding hands tightly while Natalie stared at her lover as they watched their partners speak to them. Olivia and Ana's voices joined Jane's as they sang; their voices still soft and low.

"_You go to fight for love like a soldier, I wanna run away. You're never scared to walk through the fire. I wish I had your faith_" I felt Andrea's hand in mine and turned to see her biting her lip, staring at the stage as they continued together.

"_I turn away, knowing my heart could break, I'm so afraid to fall and surrender, I'm not brave… I'm not brave_" I watched as Olivia sat a little straighter, staring at Alex as she sang, her voice low and full of emotion.

"_Keep my guard up constantly; stop this pain from piercing me. Now I don't know how, how to put it down, I wish I was that brave_" Tears were running down Maura's face as Alex struggled to hold it together while Natalie sat there, her hands wiping at her eyes as she tried hard not to cry. All three detectives' voices joined again, voices a little wavery as they saw their partners crying.

"_You go to fight for love like a soldier, I wanna run away. You're never scared to walk through the fire, I wish I had your faith_" I looked round and realised Rick Castle was standing behind Kate Beckett on her stool, his arms wrapped tightly around her as she leaned back into his embrace, her eyes closed, a sad smile on her face, his chin in her hair as he watched them sing on.

"_I turn away, knowing my heart could break, I'm so afraid to fall and surrender, I'm not brave, I'm not brave_" I noticed Jane Rizzoli was toying with the scars on her hands, I don't know what had caused them, but obviously she had been badly hurt, now she was unconsciously rubbing them as Anastasia picked up the song, her hands clenched as she locked eyes with Natalie.

"_Still you believe, you believe in me, I wish I was that brave_" I understood that I was watching something very special, that there were subtexts here I didn't, I couldn't understand, but that meant the world to each couple, this song spoke to their lives, how else could you explain the sadness in the faces of all three singers and the anguish of their lovers?

All three sang together for the chorus, their different voices blending together, not polished, but full of depth, of meaning and sadness.

"_You go to fight for love like a soldier, I wanna run away. You're never scared to walk through the fire, I wish I had your faith_" I felt Andrea's head on my shoulder and turned to lay a kiss to her temple, seeing the hint of tears in her eyes as she turned to meet me, her hand squeezing mine. Beyond her I could see Emily standing there, normally ever the cynical one, she stood there still, her eyes wide as she realised she was seeing something rare and precious play out in front of her.

"_I turn away, knowing my heart could break. I'm so afraid to fall and surrender, I'm not brave_" The last chords were ringing out as Anastasia sang her last, her eyes full of love and devotion as she stared at Natalie.

"_I'm not brave_"

Jane nodded as she sang her last line as well, anguished brown eyes locked on Maura's tear-filled green.

"_I'm not brave_"

Finally it was Olivia's turn, her voice low and full of emotion as she looked up at Alex, both had tears in their eyes.

"_I'm not brave_"

As the song finished they stood as all three blondes flung themselves into their lover's arms, desperate to be with them.

It was very quiet for a while after that.

**Author's Post Script** I don't usually do song-based chapters, but this setting just screamed out to be used so I hope you enjoy it. The image of Jane, Olivia and Ana sitting there singing in tuxes came to me ages ago and I knew I had to find a way to use it, and yes, a black and white picture of Sammy Davis Junior, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra in tuxedo's in a very similar setting did influence how it played out in my mind.

The song's suggested themselves over a four hour drive I had to take last year, I had the sound system on random selections from the SD Card and when I heard Leona Lewis' _Brave_ it just felt very right. Thinking about the scene, I started listening to tracks with a different ear and that was how _Angel_, _Hands_ and _Eternal Flame_ got selected. The others either featured in Castle (_Piano Man_) or just felt right for the night and the moment (_I Love Rock &amp; Roll_ and _Don' Cha_).

_Brave_ really felt just right for the concluding song of this chapter, especially with all the pain and fears that each couple has had to face in their quest to be together up to where they are now; it really is worth a listen if you get the chance.


	42. Chapter 42

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**42**** The Carpenter Case**

Brenda's viewpoint

It was getting late and it'd been a long, long Sunday. I'd been unhappily dragged from an all too rare sleep-in in Sharon's bed mid-morning by a call out to the home of one Patrick Jordan Carpenter, an 'urban music star' who performed under the stage name D-Tap, street slang for double tap. Unfortunately his nom de plume had turned out to be more appropriate than he'd probably intended, his bullet-riddled body found, along with that of his bodyguard, in the games room of his appallingly-decorated 'crib'.

Someone had placed a number of shots into both of them, leaving them dead on the floor. Apparently robbery wasn't the motive as cash and jewellery had been left untouched, as had D-Tap's remarkably pneumatic blonde girlfriend. She'd been upstairs in the shower when she'd heard the shots, running and hiding in the back of a closet until she was sure she was alone then dialling 911.

Pope had wanted Major Crimes on this given there was a chance this was one of those stupid rapper feuds; if it was he wanted it stopped in its tracks before anyone else ended up decorating one of Maura's slabs. Well decorating a slab, given Maura, together with Jane, Natalie and Anastasia were away in New York this weekend, they were due back on deck tomorrow and I'd pulled rank on the morgue staff to get them to hold off on the autopsy till then, I always felt more comfortable when Maura did the autopsy, her people were good enough I suppose but she was truly exceptional, the fact that she normally handled Major Crimes cases personally was something I was very grateful for.

There'd been no sign of forced entry, but that was hardly surprising, the back of the house was wide open, doors and windows both, anyone sneaking onto the property could have got in and out easily enough, given the amount of trees and bushes on the property's grounds they wouldn't have had to work too hard to not be seen. Of course there were no security cameras, that would have been too easy.

Preliminary analysis of our vic's body said three gunshots, two to the torso and the final one to the head, while his bodyguard, Christian Jeremiah, aka 'CJ', had been killed by a shot to the back of the head. Unless Maura told me something different it looked like a straightforward shooting death for both of them.

I'd already spoken to his manager who'd told me D-Tap wasn't having particularly bad relations with his fellow 'urban music' stars, well no more than normal. His music, if you could call the string of misogynistic, racist and expletive-laden rants he strung together in time to a pounding beat any kind of music, was apparently successful enough to pay for a bling-ridden lifestyle and a large house filled with all sorts of toys, including his girlfriend, one Tyfannii, second name apparently unnecessary.

She was waiting for me now, packed into a tight red dress that was more revealing gaps than material, showing off a body that I would bet the entirity of my pension had a more than passing acquaintance with the surgeon's knife. She'd tottered in on a huge pair of platform Lucite heels, alone apparently, as she hadn't thought to bring a lawyer because 'she didn't need one'. I sighed, if only everyone I had to deal with felt the same I could wrap up a lot of my cases so much faster. David had escorted her into Interview Room One where they were waiting for me.

I'd seen half the cops in the building stumbling over each other to get a look at Tyfannii when she'd strutted in, though I was pleased to see that my boys were a little more disciplined. On the other hand when you get to see people like Maura and Natalie, Jane and Ana on a daily basis, well a Barbie doll like Tyfannii didn't hold quite the same appeal.

I wandered into Interview One and sat down, followed by Mike Tao, seeing Tyfannii playing with her cell phone, her excessively long blood red nails, well talons actually, tapping across the keys. She looked up at me with wide eyes as I did and smiled, her voice a weird combination of little girl and vampishly breathy.

"Hello" I nodded.

"Good afternoon Miss... I'm sorry; I didn't catch your surname?"

"Just Tyfannii actually, like Madonna or Kesha I don't need one" She smiled happily. "And it's spelled with a y, two n's and two i's" She looked apologetic "Lots of people get it all messed up" I nodded slowly, seeing David lifting an eyebrow from where he stood against the wall behind the woman in front of me. Mike Tao finished writing it down, getting a smile and a nod from Tyfannii, before I took up the questioning again.

"Please tell us what happened this morning" She nodded and recounted what I'd already read from her statement this morning, her voice rising and falling as she spoke in some weird 'valley-girl' dialect. I noticed she was constantly checking her phone, annoying enough that I spoke up.

"Are you expecting a call Miss?"

"Oh no, not really, just making sure of the time, I don't want to be late"

"Late?"

Oh yes, for Jessie" At my questioning look she hurried on. "Jessie's my electrolysis specialist; I've got a four thirty with her, then a six o'clock with my Pilates instructor"

"I'm sorry but you may have to miss them both, a murder investigation comes first" She rolled her eyes at me, tilting her head and pouted.

"I can't just cancel; do you know how long you have to book in advance with Jean-Philippe?" At Tao's questioning look she went on. "He's my Pilate's and life coach, I need him to help me deal with everything that's happened, he helps me dispel all the negative energy" Mike just nodded slowly while I stared at her for a moment, mentally sighing, then ploughed on.

"Do you know who might have wanted your boyfriend killed Tyfannii?' She looked sad for a moment, before her face faded back into its more usual vapidly happy expression, as I wondered if it had been remade that way.

"No, he was such a nice man, well he was to me, always looking after me, buying me such nice things" She held up her arm, exposing a Pandora bracelet loaded with what to my admittedly untrained eye looked like expensively bejewelled charms. "I mean he bought me this, which I love, plus he bought me my shoes, they're Blahnik's which I just love too, don't you?' She smiled happily. "Manolo makes the cutest shoes don't you think" I just nodded uncetainly butshe was off and racing. "I love nice shoes, they show off my legs, lots of people say they're my best feature too" I tried hard not to let my eyes fall into the mini Grand Canyon that was her cleavage, they had to be 40 DDs, maybe bigger, I had a feeling that most of her admirers weren't looking at her legs when they saw her. Her smile faded. "It's such a shame, D-Tap was so good to me, I miss him really bad" I nodded and tried to drag her back on track.

"So no one you know of who might have wanted him dead?" She shook her head then smiled, then started tapping on her phone as I watched with some bemusement. She looked up, smiling proudly.

"I just asked people if they knew anyone who didn't like D-Tap" I glanced across at Mike, to see the confusion that I was feeling mirrored on his face, before I looked back at Tyfannii and asked the obvious.

"Asked who exactly?"

"My Twitter people; I have hundreds and hundreds of people who follow me, so I asked them" With some effort I held it together.

"I wasn't asking them, I have a team of detectives doing that, I was asking you"

"Me? No, everyone I met was a friend of D-Tap and they were all really nice to me, buying me drinks and stuff, D-Tap was really happy that I was helping him make friends in the industry" My voice was deadpan.

"Really" Tyfannii nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh yeah, why we were at a music party a few nights back and we met all these big people in the industry, it was fun" She smiled beatifically. "I got to meet Coco, I'm one of her biggest fans" I tilted my head.

"Coco?" She nodded, a beatific smile appearing.

"Yeah, Ice T's wife, I'm a huge fan of hers. We spent forever talking about clothes and shoes and stuff" I frowned as I tried to keep up with her rambling.

"Can't say I know her" Tyfannii's eyes opened wide, well even wider than normal, as if I'd just admitted to not knowing something important. Next thing she'd turned her phone around, showing her and another blonde, equally as pneumatic, smooched together in a selfie as I was left bemusedly wondering exactly when my interrogation had got so off track, plus questioning whether that much silicon in one place was actually either legal or safe. Tyfannii however was in raptures.

"She's awesome, and such a role model for me, I was so honoured to meet her" I nodded slowly.

"I see. That's wonderful, but could we get back to your boyfriend" She nodded sadly and put the phone down.

"I guess" I looked down at the file in front of me, trying to focus.

"You said in your statement that you heard a noise while you were upstairs and went into the closet to hide" She nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I mean I was in the shower, I'd just come out when I heard all the noise. I knew what the noise was, and I kinda knew nothing good was gonna happen, so I went and hid, just like I'd been told"

"Told by whom?" She smiled.

"D-Tap, he'd said if I ever heard gunshots I was to go hide, in the back of the closets in the spare bedroom, he'd come and get me if when it was safe" I frowned, thinking it over.

"Had this ever happened before?" She nodded enthusiastically.

"A few times, usually someone's always messing about at a party and fires a shot into the air when they get drunk or high, I'd go and hide and he'd come and get me" I filed that interesting fact away, obviously guns were a usual fixture around Carpenter's associates, not that it was much of a revelation, guns were as much a part of the rap culture as bling, boobs, blow and bad taste.

"But in this case he didn't"

"No" She pouted. ""I thought he'd forgotten about me, so after about twenty minutes I went and looked for him, that was when I found him downstairs" She shook her head. "Well I found him and CJ there, it was horrible, all, that blood everywhere" She chewed her lip, a frown marring her face. "Anyway, I like totally freaked out and called 911" She shook her head as the frown vanished. "Then I went back upstairs and got dressed and waited for the police to come around"

"And you have no idea who might have wanted them dead?" Tyfannii just shook her head then picked up her phone again. "Maybe someone does right?" She flicked her finger across the screen then shook her head. "Some of my fans think it might have been another rapper, but that'd be silly" I saw David shaking his head behind Tyfannii as I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, desperately hoping that wasn't a migraine heading my way. Finally I opened my eyes and looked at her.

"And why exactly is that?" She looked up, all wide eyed innocence.

"Because they're all really nice people, I mean they've all been real nice to me" She shook her head decisively. "Nope, couldn't be" She leaned forward. "I bet I know who it is" I sat back, mentally bracing myself and waiting for whatever revelation she'd had.

"Go on" I saw David rolling his eyes as she spoke.

"I think it was a thief, I mean D-Tap had all that great stuff in the house, some of that's worth lots of money, they probably snuck in and tried to steal stuff, then D-Tap and CJ found them and he shot them"

"So you don't think it was a feud between rappers then?"

"Not that I know of, I mean I suppose it's possible, but I didn't know anyone who wasn't nice to me" I sighed, hearing Mike next to me do the same, how could anyone be so shallow and self-centred…

"I might point out you don't seem too concerned about the fact that two men were shot downstairs and you might have been next" Her eyes opened wide, well even wider.

"Well of course I'm concerned, he was my boyfriend and now he's gone and I'm all alone here in LA. It was horrible, seeing all that blood, but I'm safe now" I just sat back, letting my disbelief slightly colour my tone.

"Really?"

"Yes! If it was a burglar, well they won't be coming back soon' Tyfannii smiled suddenly as what obviously passed for inspiration occurred inside that void between her ears. "Maybe I do need protection, I don't suppose you could assign a couple of cute and buffed police officers to protect me could you" I shook my head.

"At this point probably not" She frowned unhappily before the expression slid off her face as if it had never been.

"Aw, that's a shame. Anyway if my Twitter fans are right and it was one of those silly feuds that rappers have, I'll be fine. They obviously weren't after me" She indicated her body with a wave of her hand. "I mean those cute rappers can't get enough of this!" I nodded slowly.

"And you cannot think of anyone who might want to hurt you?"

"Me, oh no, no one would wanna do that" She smirked a bit. "All the guys want me, all the girls wanna be me, but hurt me. Nope, no way"

I pulled my glasses off and dropped them on the table, massaging my eyes, trying to fend off the imminent migraine. Finally I opened them and looked up, to see David slowly shaking his head. I tuned to Mike and could see much the same in his eyes, the woman was a silicon Barbie doll, with much the same personality.

There was nothing to be learned here. With a nod and thanks for her time I sent her on her way to her electrolysis and Pilate's appointments, it was time to look elsewhere.

Hours later I staggered in through the door of Sharon's Silver Lake home to see her uncoiling from the lounge, walking over and pulling me into a hug and a kiss, I desperately needed both. We'd got nowhere and had nothing to go on.

After a scrumptious sweet chilli chicken salad, we ended up sitting on the couch, nursing glasses of red wine, Claret for her and a Merlot for me. We kicked the case round for a while, before the subject turned to my interview subject.

"I spose that surrounded every day by people like Maura, Ana, Natalie, Mikki and the like makes me forget that not all beautiful women are both smart and capable. I kinda forgot about the bimbo's and barbies" Sharon just smiled slowly and nodded.

"I will note that not all men, or women for that matter, are looking for capable, competent partners, some want eye candy that doesn't challenge them" I thought about that for a moment then leaned forward, placing my glass on the table.

"That doesn't apply to our friends thank heavens. I mean as far as we can tell, Jane and Maura; Mikki and Andrea, Ana and Nat and Alex and Liv, they're each a partnership of equals and I don't think any of them would have it any other way" Sharon nodded slowly, obviously thinking it over for a bit.

"I believe that you're right, each couple is a pair" I thought about it for a moment then looked up at her, my voice quiet.

"And us?" She smiled slowly, before she reached forward and took my hand in hers.

"I think we're almost complete opposites that fill in the blanks in each other" At that I paused, thinking it over, accepting there was a hell of a lot of truth in that statement. I considered everything, then remembered something I'd been told a few months back.

"Ana once told me that she and Natalie are like two halves of the same person, are we like that?" Sharon pursed her lips for a moment then shook her head.

"I don't think so really" I tilted my head to regard her, feeling a little pain at her words, I'd hoped…

"Oh?" Sharon put her glass down and leaned forward.

"Based on what you've told me both of them needed the other to be whole, to be complete. With Jane and Maura it was the same. Maura needed a friend and lover who wanted her for who she was, not what she had, while Jane needed someone who accepted who she was and what she'd been through, and that she was a cop first and foremost. In our case we were already our own person before we met" I considered her words, then looked up to lose myself for a moment in her mossy green eyes, finally speaking.

"So we aren't each other's whole?" She smiled.

"No, I don't think so. Each of them needed the other to be complete. We already were, in our case we chose to be together, rather than needed to be together" I thought about that and found myself nodding at her insight.

"Is that a good thing?" Her smile widened.

"I think so, we both went into this with our eyes open; we knew what we were getting into before we started" At that I snickered for a moment, before sobering and looking into her eyes, my other hand taking hers so we held our hands in each other's.

"You maybe, I sure as heck didn't" At Sharon's raised eyebrow I smiled. "I had no idea just how good it'd be with you" I could see the impact of my words on her, before she leaned forward slowly, capturing my lips with hers. I don't know how long we sat there, just making out, before she finally broke apart and sat back, then stood, reaching out her hand.

"C'mon honey, lets take this particular conversation to bed" I smiled as I reached out and took her hand, standing.

"Oh, are you planning on doing much talking sweetie?" Her smile was pure carnal want.

"Not much really" I matched her smile.

"Oh good"


	43. Chapter 43

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**43 The Carpenter Autopsy**

Maura's viewpoint

This Monday morning was even more hectic than usual, with a number of cases requiring our attention having transpired across the weekend while we were away. Most of them had been efficiently handled by my team, though as per usual I would be sitting down and reviewing each case with the medical examiner in question, discussing their findings and their conclusions, providing both critique and support as they developed their skills. It was an essential part of my job to encourage their professional development, one that I took very seriously.

That had kept me busy for the first few hours before I could turn my attention to Major Crimes' current case, a homicide that left two dead males awaiting autopsy. Chief Johnson had requested that they await my return, something I understood even as I found her confidence in my skills to be a deep professional and personal compliment. Jane had dropped by earlier, delivering a fresh cup of coffee and a small bakery treat, another of her endless small kindnesses that made me love her just that little bit more. We were both still tired from the weekend's activities, followed by the late night flight back to LA.

After wrapping up our evening at the Old Haunt, we had finally got back to our hotel not long before dawn, I should have been tired but instead I was full of energy, instead taking the opportunity to property show my appreciation to Jane for the sentiments she had shown that evening, I understood that both singing in front of others and playing the piano after Charles Hoyt's attack were difficult for her, but she had let nothing stand in her way, instead she had powered through, demonstrating once again that I was blessed to love and be loved by her.

We hadn't actually got to sleep till well past dawn, only to be awakened not long before noon by Natalie banging on our door, cajoling us out to play tourist that afternoon and meeting up with Alex and Olivia for a late lunch, before we got a little shopping in, then headed home. All in all it had been a wonderful weekend, even if I was left a little sleep deprived, but it was a small price to pay for a truly wonderful experience and not something I would have ever missed. Jane had agreed that a good night's sleep tonight would be much appreciated before I sent her on her way, asking her to let Chief Johnson know I would be commencing my autopsy of her victim's at 10.30.

Thus it was that I was about to commence the autopsy of Patrick Jordan Carpenter, AKA 'D-Tap', when Detective Sergeant David Gabriel entered the room and greeted me, hanging his coat near the door, obviously Chief Johnson had assigned him to watch this autopsy. It was her normal practice to ask one of her team to sit in on my autopsies, both to allow them to obtain immediate insights into any relevant facts I might uncover into the case under investigation and also to gain further firsthand experience to broaden their knowledge base.

I welcomed their attendance, having someone there helped pass the time during what were often routine investigations, in addition they were also surprisingly good company, each of them having diverse interests that did not fit the impressions most people would gather at first meeting them on the job.

Each brought their own style and personality to the process; Lieutenant Flynn and I would discuss classic movies and the stars of the so-called 'Golden Years' of Hollywood filmmaking, comparing them with contemporary actors and the movies being made today, particularly remakes of classic films; I had learned that he had a particular appreciation for westerns and Alfred Hitchcock movies in particular, leading me to speculate on his chosen profession as a modern day 'sheriff' and solver of mysteries.

Lieutenant Provenza on the other hand shared my appreciation for classical music, particularly operas and arias. We would pass the time comparing Tosca and Madame Butterfly, La Traviata and Fidelio, Eugene Onegin and Les Troyens, he was surprisingly knowledgeable, to the point that I doubted even his friend Lieutenant Flynn was fully aware of just how extensive his knowledge and interest in the subject was.

At other times we discussed the pros and cons of the great singers, Melba and Sutherland, Callas and Domingo, Wunderlich and Pavarotti, comparing and contrasting their strengths and weaknesses as performers. Given Jane's preferred musical tastes usually involves both drum kits and electric guitars, I greatly appreciated the chance to discuss the technical intricacies of fine music with someone as knowlegable.

Lieutenant Tao and I often discussed the philosophical side of technology, his enthusiasm for technological developments not blinding him to the potential and actual downsides of scientific advances. Many times we'd had spirited ethical debates about the use of technology, such as a future where autonomous drones might seek out terrorist targets and attack them without the intervention of a human in the decision loop. At other times we might rehash older debates such as the 'experience machine' ethical puzzle; while often finding ourselves on opposite sides of the debate I found myself enjoying the mental stimuli immensely.

Another time we had discussed the potential for us all to be living in a 'Matrix' style virtual reality, would we eventually come to realise we were living inside a fantasy or would we be so subsumed within the false reality presented that we would reject the actual existing reality in its stead? I found his discussions to be both enjoyable and thought provoking and looked forward to his presence, as I did all of the Major Crimes team.

With Detective Sanchez our relationship had changed; initially he had been gruff, almost taciturn, but over the time we had known each other he had let a little of that defensive wall down, obviously his trust in me grew as we became more familiar, until he began asking me about the mental processes that determined choices people made. Initially he was seeking insights into why people killed, no doubt attempting to further his professional knowledge, but over time it had changed, as we discussed the rationale behind decisions made by celebrities, politicians, sports stars and the like, discussing the mental and emotional states that drive certain decisions.

Over time his questions had become more incisive and I gathered, though he had not mentioned it, that he was doing some research on his own time to broaden his knowledge, something I was pleased to see. Most recently he had been asking questions more related to sexuality; reading between the lines I suspected he was trying to gain insights to the lifestyle choices someone he knew was making.

Chief Johnson was quieter than her team; less ebullient. I believe she found the peace and quiet of the morgue to be something of a sanctuary, far from the bustle and demands of the murder room and her often stressful cases. Jane would keep me appraised on the progress or otherwise of Major Crimes cases and I made it a habit to check in with Brenda regularly, I believe that she held one of the most stressful roles in the Department and had done so for eight years, the fact that she handled it with such apparent ease was deceiving, the constant pressure inevitably taking its toll. Her new relationship with Sharon was helping however I felt as her friend it was incumbent on me to be there when she needed someone, supporting her as much as I could. She would sit and sometimes we would chat, other times she would sit and watch; letting the classical music I normally play while conducting an autopsy wash over her, at rest, though her eyes missed nothing. I found myself enjoying her quiet company.

Commander Raydor was another quiet visitor, sometimes coming down to watch me work on one of her cases; I believe she too was seeking a respite from the demands of her job. She would usually bring two mugs of herbal teas and we would sip them while we discussed the case, then she would observe as I conducted the autopsy, often while we discussed classical music. Sharon's taste ran rather more to lighter pieces, Rachmanoff and Vivaldi rather than Bach or Wagner, as we covered different directors and orchestras. The discussions were always enjoyable and I'd more than once found myself seeking out other pieces based on Sharon's recommendations.

Of course they were not my only visitors, Naturally Jane attended as often as she could; Anastasia had been a participant a number of times, particularly relating to cases with a Federal context, even Natalie had visited; in fact had been one of the most interested, gowning up and standing across the table from me as I worked.

Absorbed in what I was doing, she had stated that though she had found herself unable to cut people open, as required by her initial career choice of medicine, she still found the human body fascinating and, retaining her knowledge of anatomy from the first year of her abortive medical degree, her questions were both informed and incisive. Natalie had initially attended because a local television show had approached the Department to film a series of 'A day in the life' segments, shadowing different members of the LAPD. Natalie had thought that coverage of the role of the Medical Examiner's office might prove instructive and interesting. Since then she had occasionally found reasons to visit, company that I welcomed.

Today though Sergeant Gabriel had joined me for the procedure, which meant the discussion could cover any number of topics, often covering current affairs, international politics and similar matters. David's interests were varied and he often spent his off duty time expanding his knowledge, making our discussions both informed and interesting.

Today was no different; we covered a diverse range of subjects, many relating to Russia which had been in the news of late; Russia's strategic interests, Valdimir Putin as a modern day Czar, the rise of the Russian oligarchs under Yeltsin, the adverse demographic outlook for modern Russia and so on. I had started learning Russian, partly to gain a better understanding of the culture's writing and poetry in its mother tongue, partly to converse with Brenda and Anastasia who both spoke it fluently. I was still at an early stage but they had both been quite supportive. I had taken to watching online broadcasts of the Russian media, absorbing the tone and cadence of spoken Russian as well as the worldview from Moscow which was very different to ours, to say the least. Finally drifting off Russia, we chatted about bits and pieces pertaining to the Carpenter case, even as I drew his autopsy to a close, summarizing my findings before committing them to a report.

"Sergeant Gabriel, Mr Carpenter died from a single 9 millimetre gunshot wound to the forehead. While he was hit by several other rounds that cumulatively would likely have proved fatal without urgent and timely medical atttention, primarily through blood loss, this shot was instantly fatal" I looked down at the body now lying silent on my table. "The first few shots are compatable with him being shot while standing, however the final, fatal shot was delivered as he lay flat on his back, from a position near his feet, the assailant standing, however I cannot give you the exact height as we do not know the distance they were from the victim" I frowned down at the body on my slab, mentally calculating angles. Looking back up I spoke. "The shooter was no less than 147 centimetres tall if they were standing at Mister Carpenters feet, with the height increasing the further back they were standing, that is if they were holding the gun at full extension in line with the angle from their eye level to Mister Carpenter's forehead" David nodded his head slowly, looking up from the body to where I stood on the other side of the table as he raised his arm in the posture I had described.

"Finishing him off?" I nodded.

"A coup re grace if you will" His head bobbed once.

"That's what it looked like at the scene, nice to get a simple one now and again" I smiled.

"This one taxed neither your skills of observation nor my forensic knowledge Sargeant" He smiled.

"Perhaps the next one might be more interesting Doc, can't have you getting bored down here" I shook my head at his words, hastening to correct his incorrect assumptions.

"Contrary to what are often rather sensationalised media depictions, the life of a medical examiner is not one of engaging in shoot outs and personally investigating suspects" I looked up and raised an eyebrow. "I leave such things to those better qualified in such pursuits, detectives such as yourself for example" David smiled.

"I don't know about that Doc, according to your history you've had more than enough close shaves back in Boston"

"Detective, given your extensive experience you should have realised by now not to put too much credance into media reports, they have a regrettable tendancy to either sensationalise or trivialise much of the subjects they cover"

"Not wrong there" He smiled for a moment and then suddenly stopped. "Hang on, that reminds me" He walked over to the hat and coat stand by the door, reaching in to the inner pocket of his jacket before producing what looked like a folded newspaper.

"Have you seen this piece from the Los Angeles Post?" I frowned.

"I am not sure Sargeant, what exactly are you referring to?" He carefully laid the paper out on a clear bench top and started flipping pages.

"My girlfriend spotted this yesterday and told me about it last night" He kept flipping pages as I walked over to stand beside him, finally stopping on the fashion and gossip pages, his finger tapping a photo. "Here we go" I looked down, surprised to see the image was of me, taken at a crime scene almost a week ago. I was crouched by a body, looking up at a uniformed officer, I remembered the case, I had responded to a call out to a gang shooting in Boyle Heights. My eyes flicked to the accompanying text.

"_Los Angeles has always been a fashion-forward city, full of style icons, some of them in the most unusual places. The city's new Medical Examiner is a perfect example. Maura Isles has recently been appointed to the role from her previous job as Boston's Chief Medical Examiner, adding a touch of style not usually found at crime scenes. The bright colours of this Carolina Herrera dress teamed with a Ferragamo jacket is right on trend, as are the Manolo Blahnik's, all straight from this season's ranges..._"

I looked up at him, I was sure the exasperation I was feeling showing on my face.

"Surely they are joking, I was just doing my job" He smiled, a trifle amused at my annoyance.

"Well Doc, you do kinda stand out wherever you are" I smiled, trying to reassure him that I was not in any way angry with him.

"Thank you David, I appreciate that. May I borrow this, I will return it to you when I am finished with it" He smiled and waved.

"Keep it, I just hung on to it cause I thought you'd be interested" I nodded and smiled as he left, before shucking my scrubs and getting changed back into my normal dress before making my way out, heading for Natalie's office.


	44. Chapter 44

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**44 Driving Miss Sharon**

Brenda's viewpoint

We were heading home, I don't know about Sharon but I was tired and happy to be calling quits to a long day spent fruitlessly chasing down leads in the Carpenter case. Honestly, we'd hit a dead end, we had no leads on people who might have wanted him dead which was a surprise in his particular line of work. Their stupid feuds had left more than a few of them dead, but in this case it seemed he wasn't personally offensive enough to have made any particular enemies. It was a sign of the rap industry that he'd been described as too much of a pussy to have enemies, as if not having them was a sign of weakness. It surely was a messed up world when having enemies was a seen as a measure of respect and success.

Sharon's day hadn't been much better following a domestic involving a drunk patrol officer taking pot shots at his ex-wife's house last night, so we were both happy to be calling it quits. We'd decided to crash at my place tonight and I was giving Sharon a lift as her work car was in being serviced, which was fine by me, it meant we got to spend some extra time together, which had been helpful as I'd had the chance to bring her up to speed on the Carpenter case to get her insights, she came at cases from a different perspective, sometimes she saw a different angle which helped, unfortunately not this time, so our discussion turned to other, more pleasant topics.

We were chatting about potential places to go for a weekend out of the city when I got a bad feeling, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I wasn't sure why so I started looking round, trying to work out what was getting to me. Sharon picked up on it quick smart and turned to look at me.

"What's up honey?"

"Not sure Sharon, hang on" I turned off my normal path and headed west, keeping an eye on the rear view mirror. Sure enough a dark blue sedan turned behind us. While I'd never been a field agent, as a senior Agency officer I'd been put through the usual courses for our own safety, in particular counter-surveillance, escape and evasion and defensive driving techniques.

Our instructors were very thorough, in particular one older man named Clark, quietly spoken, he had quite the reputation about him in the Agency and his manner was such that when he spoke you listened. He'd taken a small group of us through a long lecture and some extremely practical examples of recognising when we were being followed and the appropriate counter-surveillance techniques.

Right now I was thanking Mister Clark for driving his lessons in deep. It may have been years ago but my subconscious had picked up the signs.

"Uh Brenda, you forget something?" For a moment I'd forgotten Sharon was here with me.

"Hmm, maybe" I muttered distractedly, my attention in the mirrors. Turning north again I started looking round for a gas station, finally seeing one up ahead as the dark blue car followed us round the corner, maybe a quarter mile behind us.

I looked across to see Sharon watching me. "I'm pulling in to the gas station ahead, do me a favour and go inside and buy us two drinks" I glanced in the mirror again. "Take your time" I caught her frown.

"What's up?" I smiled.

"Probably nothing, but I want to make sure" I pulled into the gas station and stopped, turning to look at her. "Take your bag and your weapon" Sharon's eyes widened then narrowed. Before she could speak I shook my head.

"I'm probably being paranoid but I think someone's following us, so this is one way of finding out" I reached out and placed my hand on her arm. "Just in case, be careful" Sharon nodded at me and then leaned in to kiss me on the cheek, whispering in my ear.

"You be careful too"

I pulled back and nodded, before turning to get out of the car, pulling my big bag out and slinging it over my shoulder so my Glock was close at hand. Opening the tank I started filling it, before looking round as casually as I could. Our shadow, if that's what it was, had pulled up a fair way back, but as far as I could tell no one had got out. I leisurely filled up, then cleaned the front and back windows, before walking inside to pay.

Sharon was waiting and handed me a bottle of Diet Coke, passing it with a raised eyebrow. I preferred the real deal but Sharon was always on my case about the amount of sugar I was having, Coke being a good example. I shrugged at her, not prepared to argue given she was doing it for my own good, before walking to the cashier and paying for the gas. On the way out I leaned in and spoke quietly.

"We may have a shadow, I'm pretty sure there's a car following us, so I'm going to find out if it is or if I'm just being paranoid" Sharon followed me back into the car and nodded.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Let's see if they're serious" I gave her a smile and a wink before driving out of the gas station, waiting for a break in the traffic before turning and driving back the way we came, pointing out the car I'd spotted. "Dark blue sedan parked on the other side of the road, can you see how many are in it"

As we drove past, I flicked my eyes towards it; I thought there was only one person inside, something Sharon confirmed a few seconds later. As we drove past I saw it pull out and drive in the opposite direction before turning into a driveway, then backing out into traffic and following us, it was pretty obvious, something I passed on to Sharon.

"We've definitely picked up a shadow Sharon" She nodded.

"In a Crown Vic too; the only people I can think of who'd be interested in following us right now would be Kennedy and Powell, if they know we're on to them" I nodded.

"I was thinking the same; specially given it's a Crown Vic. Can you call Jane and Ana and see if they can help us out here"

"Sure, what do you want them to do?"

"Get into their non-work cars and meet up with us somewhere closer to home. Maybe they can get close enough to get a tag number" For the next few minutes as she spoke to them both, I carefully made my way through traffic, our shadow following at a discreet distance before I finally pulled up in front of our dry cleaners. Sharon looked at me.

"What now?" I smiled.

"Head inside like you're picking up dry cleaning, buy the girls some time" She nodded, helpfully not pointing out that we had no dry cleaning in at the moment.

I sat there for a few minutes, until Sharon returned; her cell to her ear.

"Ana's a few blocks away, Jane's a few minutes behind" I nodded as she got in, fishing out my own cell phone with one hand as I peered into the rear view mirror.

"Who are you talking to?" She put her hand over the phone.

"Ana" I nodded and speed-dialled Jane, who picked up almost instantly. It was tricky pulling out into traffic with only one hand while I waited for Jane to pick up.

'_Rizolli__'_

"Jane, its Brenda, Sharon's talking to Ana on her phone, we're heading towards Silver Lake Shopping Centre, heading north on South Alvarado Street, passing under the Hollywood Freeway. You're looking for a dark blue Crown Vic"

'_Got it Chief, be there shortly_'

The next few minutes passed quickly as we gave our movements to Jane and Ana, before Sharon turned to me.

"Ana has the other car in view, definitely a Crown Vic" I glanced back at Sharon and she nodded, they were standard LAPD issue after all. Jane's voice came though as well.

'_I have Ana's MGB in sight, I'm a few cars behind her_' I passed that on to Sharon and spoke to Jane as Sharon listened in.

"We're going to pull into the shopping centre, park and head inside, can you try and see where the other car parks and who might be in it if you can, 'specially if they get out. Just don't be seen"

'_Right_'. I could hear Sharon pass on the same info to Anastasia as I made my way into the traffic around Silver Lake's shopping district.

We pulled into the car park and drove around for a minute, looking for a spot close to the doors, before finding one and parking, getting out and locking up. I tried to see our shadow but couldn't see anything without being way too blatant about it so we headed inside and wandered around for a bit before ducking into a coffee shop where we had a view of the entrance.

We must have been there for a good ten minutes, drinking coffee and speculating for a while then sitting in silence, waiting to hear something, before Sharon's phone rang, it was Ana, the other car had left but she'd got the tag numbers. I asked Sharon to get her to come inside before ringing Jane and asking her to join us as well.

A couple of minutes later they were both seated and the waitress had their coffee orders, leaving us alone before Ana started.

"Dark blue Crown Vic, single Caucasian male, dark brown hair, late thirties, maybe early-forties, wearing a red tie. I didn't recognise him" She shrugged. "No surprise there" A post-it note was pushed across the table. "There's the plate number, it was an Exempt plate" Jane nodded, dropping a torn out notebook page with the licence number on it on the table top as well.

"Definitely an unmarked, I could see the radio aerial inside the back window, plus the hidden disco lights in the grill" She nodded over to Ana. "I didn't recognise him either, but that's hardly surprising" I looked over at Sharon as she frowned, then looked at them both.

"Could you identify him from a photo?" They both nodded, before Sharon looked at me. "What's the bet he's from Robbery / Homicide?" I shook my head.

"I don't bet against a sure thing" Jane wild curls bounced as she shook her head too.

"Me neither" I pursed my lips.

"We'll run the number tomorrow but I'm pretty sure it'll turn out to be a Robbery / Homicide car" They all nodded, before Ana spoke.

"Wonder why they'd feel the need to follow you though, your addresses are on file with the department and surely all they'd need is to run a check?" Sharon put her cup down carefully and spoke.

"Given the nature of the job, my address isn't in the usual databases, too many angry cops have access to them so my address is listed as the New Parker Centre for work, DMV, all the other usual agencies" Ana nodded.

"Makes sense, they must have gone digging and found that, so they're looking to follow you home" I said nothing, but the sense of dread that ran through me was chilling. They'd only need our addresses if they wanted to find us outside of work. I was about to say something when Jane spoke.

"Y'know, they aren't stupid, following you means they want to find out where you both live, where you are out of hours" Ana nodded slowly.

"I'm surprised that they need to follow Brenda though, your address must be in the database" I shook my head.

"I was giving Sharon a lift, we were heading back to her place and if they were following Sharon they would have seen me pick her up. They weren't following me, they were following her" Everyone was quiet for a moment before Jane spoke.

"Good chance they know you're together if they didn't already, so you have to watch out for each other" She shrugged. "Not that you don't do that already" I nodded slowly as I felt Sharon's hand slide into mine on the table top before she spoke.

"Well, they missed us and we know what to look for, so we'll head back to my home tonight" She turned those deep green eyes on me. "From now on you're staying at my place, they must know where you live by now, so we keep away from there, especially at night, until this is wrapped up" I nodded, it made sense.

"That'll be hard to take, won't it?" I looked up at Ana's teasing voice. "Brenda in your bed seven nights a week" I was about to say something when Jane spoke.

"Maybe if it's every night the novelty might wear off" I looked up at Jane and smiled, a little nastily.

"Like you and Maura?" She flushed and looked down as Ana sniggered. I chuckled as Sharon raised an eyebrow at Ana.

"Has the novelty worn off for you and Natalie yet?" Ana grinned, completely shameless.

"Took us a couple of months of pretty much constant sex before the novelty faded, it was about then the education started, working out exactly what we liked. That bits still going on actually" I smirked and looked over at Sharon.

"Looks like we've skipped a few steps, rolled it all into one sweetie" Sharon smiled before she spoke.

"My girlfriend, the overachiever" Jane shook her head.

"Ok, I'm pretty sure I don't need to hear how good my boss's sex life is, not really" Sharon cocked her head at Jane.

"Oh, I'm sure Maura would, in the name of scientific research of course, establishing a baseline for comparison, that sort of thing" I schooled my face into a serious look as the teasing began in earnest.

"Ours is pretty amazing actually. Sharon's a very, very good teacher" I saw the mirth dancing in Sharon's eyes as we turned the screws a bit more as she looked over at Jane.

"Maura did tell me a few things you and her do, some of which we've tried out. I'm sure she'd love to have our experiences to compare against yours" Jane's cheeks reddened even more.

"Ah no thanks, I don't want to know what Maura's been telling you, honestly I'll sleep better not knowing that my boss and her girlfriend know all about our sex life" Sharon smiled.

"Oh come on Jane, from what Maura's told us you have nothing to be modest about. Besides, you forget we've heard it all anyway" If anything Jane's blush deepened as she found her coffee fascinating

"Like I said, I don't need to hear it"


	45. Chapter 45

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**45 Of Rappers and Whores**

Brenda's viewpoint

The Carpenter investigation was going nowhere with motive hard to come by, our enquiry's had determined he wasn't on the outer with any other rappers, well no more so than was standard fare for that ilk. The same went for drug dealers, apparently D-Tap was, surprisingly, relatively clean, marijuana being his recreational pharmaceutical of choice, he'd apparently steered clear of coke and the like, even his drug-related songs tended to talk about the friends that drugs had taken rather than glamorizing them, which had been a surprise, most rappers talked about drugs in the same tone they reserved for their guns, their cars and sometimes, their women.

As for robbery, as far as we could tell nothing had been stolen from the house, so robbery apparently wasn't a motive, leaving us scratching for a lead. It was as irritating for my team as it was for me, they were all excellent detectives and none were of the nature to let things sit. That was why I was standing quietly in the doorway to my office unnoticed, listening to them freebase ideas around the room, sometimes these discussions led nowhere, other times they sent us off chasing new leads, but they were always worth paying attention to. At the moment it was Jane leading the discussion, though the lead could change seamlessly numerous times during a discussion.

"This Tyfannii chick's an idiot right?" There were nods around the room at her observation before Flynn temporised.

"Apparently" Surprisingly it was David Gabriel who spoke, his voice dismissive, very unlike him.

"No apparently about it, I was in there, you had to be there to believe it, that bimbo doesn't have two brain cells to rub together, she's the living embodiment of every tacky blonde joke you've ever heard" there were nods around the room, they'd all heard the stories. Sanchez kicked the ball on.

"But she WAS the last person to have seen both victim's alive" Provenza waved at the time line written up on the board.

"Yeah, right before she took a shower" Jane nodded slowly.

"Fortunately for her, otherwise she'd probably have been killed too" There was general agreement around the room. "So what that means is that whoever wanted Carpenter dead, assuming the other guy was collateral damage because he was there at the wrong time and place, only wanted him dead, they didn't care about anyone else" Sanchez frowned.

"How you figure that?" Tao jumped in.

"Cause little miss two n's and two i's lived there too, something anyone with even a passing knowledge of our vic would have known, so adding her to the kill list wouldn't have been that hard" There were nods around the room at that. Jane glanced across at the board then back at Sanchez.

"Keeps bringing me back to motive, who wanted him dead, and why?" Provenza looked up at where she was standing next to the board.

"What are you getting at Rizzoli?" Flynn shrugged.

"Well, apparently he hadn't pissed off anybody lately, not enough to want to kill him" Flynn shrugged, playing devil's advocate.

"So? Obviously somebody wanted him dead" He waved at the board next to her as Jane crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall, nodding as she spoke.

"Yeah, but why? If it wasn't personal what else did he have that was worth killing him for?" Tao lifted a folder of financial information.

"Well, he was worth a couple of million in cash, on top of all that stuff in his house, plus cars and a boat" There were nods at that, including my own, that was motive right there. Gabriel rubbed his chin then spoke.

"Did he own the house?" Tao flipped a few pages.

"No, it was a rental" He flipped a few more pages. "Check that, so was the boat" Jane nodded slowly.

"OK, so he was worth a lot in cash and items but it looks like none of it was stolen. Who gets it?" Sanchez checked some records in a file on his desk.

"Hmm, I talked to his lawyer and manager, according to them he didn't have much family left and had no contact with those he did, a brother in jail in Fresno doing fifteen to life for taking part in a murder" He looked up for a moment then back to the folder. "He was the driver in a drive-by in a gang turf war. The mother's got a long record of drug possession convictions, she's a crack user" He flipped a few more pages. "She's fallen off the grid a few years ago, last info was she was living in Detroit" Jane thought it over for a moment, then spoke.

"So if she's still alive she's probably out of the picture, what about our witness, Tyfannii?" Sanchez dropped the file on his desk and looked up.

"What do you mean?" She shrugged.

"Was there a pre-nup or some kind of agreement?" Flynn frowned.

"I thought that only happened before marriage?" Gabriel shrugged.

"Not just marriages apparently, they're supposed to be all the rage amongst celebs, don't want to get taken by a casual ex" Tao looked over the rim of his glasses at him.

"And you know this how exactly?" David flipped him a finger.

"My girlfriend reads all those trashy gossip sites" He shrugged then deflected. "Ask our resident expert here on divorces" He waved at the repeatedly-married Provenza, getting a scowl in return as Sanchez spoke up.

"No pre-nup that the lawyer mentioned" Jane frowned.

"So our bimbo may be in line for a payday, or maybe nothing? I don't know how that works here" There were blank looks around the room at her words. "I dunno, we need a lawyer's opinion I guess" I nodded and levered myself off the wall, walking forward as I looked around the room, Jane's hunch bore looking into, she had good instincts.

"A good idea, Sergeant Gabriel, would you be so kind as to contact our victim's lawyer and ask the question? Also talk to ADA Hobbs; ask what rights Tyfannii might have to our victim's estate. If she can't answer you she should be able to direct you to someone who can" He nodded, already making notes as I looked around. "Detective Sanchez, can you please chase up our victim's brother and mother, confirm that they weren't somehow trying to get their hands on his money, as relatives they'd have the best claim on anything if he didn't leave a will" Julio shook his head and spoke up.

"No will that his lawyer's aware of Chief" I nodded.

"Exactly, so make sure they didn't have some involvement" He nodded and I moved on.

"Lieutenant Tao, would you be good enough to get an inventory of our victim's possessions, he probably had them insured so you can start with his insurance company" He nodded as I rounded on Flynn. "Lieutenant Flynn; would you and Lieutenant Provenza kindly lead a team of uniformed officers on another, comprehensive…" I stressed the word. "…search of the victim's house. I doubt that any weapons that our victim almost certainly had were insured, so turn it upside down; see what you can find and more importantly what might be missing. We can compare that list with whatever Lieutenant Tao turns up from the insurance company" They nodded as I looked at Jane. "Detective Rizzoli, would you be kind enough to dig a little further into our only witness" Jane nodded slowly as Provenza spoke.

"What are you thinking Chief?" I walked up to the picture of Tyfannii decorating the board and tapped it with my fingernail.

"I cannot possibly believe that she just sprang fully formed as a human Barbie doll, she had to have had a life before she went under the knife and I'd like to know about it" Jane frowned.

"I'm not sure we even have her prints on file" I smiled happily at her.

"Then I can trust you to get creative"

I know my team, they're all really competitive and a challenge is one sure way to motivate them, particularly Jane. Seeing her eyes narrow I could see my challenge had been accepted and hid my smirk. Five hours later and they were back; I watched as Jane slapped a booking photo up on the murder board, pinning it there with a magnet and stepping back.

"Meet Stacy Kebbler..." The woman in the picture was pretty, in a wholesome girl next door kind of way. "...AKA Tyfannii" I shook my head as my eyes flitted between the two pictures side by side on the board, they looked nothing alike. I turned and looked at Jane, raising an eyebrow in question. "We lifted some prints from her stuff at the house and got them crossed with the database" I nodded slowly as she continued. "She's been busted twice on solicitation charges, that's where we found her prints"

"You sure it's her?" It was Flynn. "Even the bone structure looks different" Jane waved away his query.

"Unless Tyfannii has a room mate we don't know about living in her room, it's her. The only prints in there were hers and the vics" Flynn snorted.

"Turning tricks on street corners, how the hell did she end up looking like that..." He indicated the more recent photo. "...and living as a rappers toy?" Jane shook her head.

"Not by working street corners, that's for sure. She was a high-class hooker apparently, working the five star hotels for two different agencies, she got caught in sting operations Vice was running about eighteen months apart" I looked between the two images, I could barely believe they were the same woman.

"What do we know about her?" Jane shrugged.

"I've asked Vice for whatever intel they may have, but it hasn't turned up yet. As for the rest…" She indicated Anastasia who was sitting quietly off to one side waiting her turn. "I asked Ana to chase her up through her contacts" I nodded and turned.

'Agent Romanov..." She slipped off the desk she was perched on and strolled over to the murder board, pinning up an image next to the one Jane just had, a high school yearbook photo by the look of it; you could see the similarities between it and the booking photo.

"Chief, your suspect was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, apparently a cheerleader at school and at Notre Dame university, prom queen, homecoming queen, the whole deal, she graduated from high school, above average marks apparently, then didn't do much for a year or two before moving to Los Angeles about five years ago" I nodded, turning to Jane.

"How long ago were her solicitation charges?" She consulted her notes.

"Most recent was over a year ago, the other about eighteen months prior" I chewed my lip for a moment, thinking it through.

"So what was she doing in that time?" Jane looked across at Ana, who shrugged, before looking back at me and answering.

'Near as we can tell, she was pulling a range of jobs, waiting tables, working at Wal-Mart, receptionist, all low-skill jobs, that lasted for a little over a year, then she dropped off the grid. She next turned up when she got busted"

"How in heaven's name did she go from that…" I pointed at her booking shot then the more recent one. "...to that?" Looking back at them both I saw Ana shrug as she answered.

"Not sure Chief. We're still chasing down any local residential info" Jane nodded.

"Yeah, I have a couple of residential addresses listed so I was going to check them out"

"Start with the most recent one's first, see what they have to say about her...transformation" They both nodded as David Gabriel put his phone down and stood up, walking our way. I turned and tilted my head, silently asking the question.

"Just got off the phone from ADA Hobbs Chief, Carpenter's lawyer told me there was no pre-nup so Tyfannii's entitled to nothing as far as he's concerned. I then followed up with Andrea and she talked to one of the other ADAs who knew more about that kinda legal stuff" He paused to check his notebook then launched into it. "Basically she's entitled to items that have been gifted to her directly, clothes, personal jewelry, gifts, that sort of thing, but nothing more. She has no call on the house, cash, cars, furniture or anything else, basically the stuff in her dressers, drawers and closets, that's it" I nodded and turned to Julio.

"Detective Sanchez, do you have anything on the family?" He shook his head.

"It all looks like dead ends Chief. The brother got god in jail, not the forgiveness and turn the other cheek kind either. He's hooked up with a militant offshoot of Nation of Islam and spends most of his time in solitary for inciting violence between the Muslim prisoners and everyone else; he's implicated in inciting at least three deaths by his fellow Muslims inside. The Warden at his jail says he's had no contact outside the jail community for months, he gets no visitors and doesn't get or make calls" I nodded as I thought it over. Given how charged internal prison religious tensions could get, there was a good chance the brother was fully absorbed staying alive.

"What about the mother?" He shook his head.

"Turned up dead almost a year ago, she overdosed outside during a bad winter and froze to death" I grimaced at what was a nasty way to go, even as Julio continued. "I spoke to the case officer and he said she'd been in and out of shelters for a few years before that, basically she was pretty far gone, she could barely remember her name most days" I thought about it for a moment.

"How could she afford drugs then?" It was his turn to grimace.

"She was turning tricks at various truck stops for long-haul truckers, when she wasn't involved in petty theft" I shook my head and turned back to the board.

"That would seem to rule her out for any involvement either" I turned to Ana. "Agent Romanov, would you please make some enquiries with your Indiana colleagues, see what they can turn up about Miss Kebbler, does she still have contact with her family, that sort of thing" Ana nodded, I went to turn away then turned back as I thought of something. "You said she got good grades at school?" She nodded.

"Top 10 percent of her class" I frowned. Given the behavior of the woman I'd interviewed that didn't match and I wanted to know why.

"That's not the impression she left with everyone she interacted with. I have to wonder just how much of that was an act, which makes me also curious about what else might have been an act as well" I saw Ana's eyes narrow, she got it immediately. "Please look into that" I got a 'will do' as I nodded my thanks and turned to my Lieutenants.

"Gentlemen, any luck with your endeavours?" They exchanged glances before Provenza led off.

"We did another search; found some interesting things, most importantly a concealed weapons locker in back of his bedroom closet. A really nice collection of handguns there, all hanging on a shadowboard" I nodded my understanding as he continued. "Based on the shadows on the board, there were two pistols missing, one for what I assume was the 45 that was found on the desk in his office when he was killed, the other is still missing" Flynn jumped in.

"Based on the pegs in the board, it's too small to be a 45, it could be a 9mm" I nodded.

"So it could be our missing murder weapon?" He held his hand out and waggled it from side to side in a 'maybe' gesture.

"Possibly, all of the weapons we found were unregistered and we didn't have a match for the pistol that shot both our vic's in the database so we're getting ballistics to check all the 9 mills we found for a match" Provenza looked across at Tau and nodded as Mike took up the thread.

"I got a list of the valuable and attractive items from the insurance company, cross checking that with the stuff we found in the house we found a decent number of items, particularly jewelry, missing" He pulled a face. "I understand that he had a safety deposit box in a bank downtown so I've asked for a warrant to get a look inside" I nodded.

"Good work everyone" I checked my watch, it was getting late and I had another meeting, this time with Sharon and the others about our OIS investigation, to get to. "Lieutenant Tao, while you're at it, try and pull any financials you can on Tyfannii, specifically anything she may have squirrelled away under the name Stacy Kebbler" He nodded.

"Got it Chief" I looked round the room.

"Detective Rizzoli, could you please chase Vice for anything they might have on our witness that might not have made it into the file, any known associates, the agencies she was working for, anything to help fill in the blanks. Agent Romanov, anything you can pull out of her background in Indiana may help" They both nodded as I moved on. "Lieutenant Provenza, would you and Sergeant Gabriel please head back over to the house tomorrow morning, go over our witnesses' statement again and compare that to your observations on the ground, look for any discrepancies" Provenza looked up and nodded once.

"Chief" Looking round I spotted my next victim.

"Detective Sanchez, would you be good enough to chase up the ballistic reports on the weapons recovered this afternoon, while Lieutenant Flynn, please look into exactly how long Tyfannii had known our victim, how did they meet, how long they'd been together, that sort of thing" He frowned, nodding slowly.

"What are you thinking Chief?"

"It looks like there may be some loose ends with our only witness which, as you all know, tends to irritate me no end" There were nods around the room. "So let's pick this back up in the morning and see if we can't tie off a few of those loose ends"

I caught Jane and Ana's eyes and saw them both nod carefully; we had a meeting to get to.


	46. Chapter 46

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**46 OIS Interlude**

Jane's viewpoint

"Unless someone in records is keeping tabs on those particular files, I don't think they worked out we were snooping round from me" We were reconvening in Sharon's conference room after hours again where we were discussing what we'd learned about Brenda and Sharon's shadow and trying to understand how they'd learned we were investigating them. "I was careful and made sure I didn't appear on their radar when I was down there" Brenda held up her hands in a placating gesture, not that I was getting heated, more in apology.

"I didn't think you had Jane, but they seem to have worked out that we're investigating an all" Sharon nodded.

"As far as I can tell, there are only two ways they could have learned we're looking into them, either your investigation or Ana's" I nodded, it made sense but I was sure I'd been careful. I looked over to Ana and she nodded slowly.

"Could be either, on one hand I'm sniffing around Justice's Witsec section and if someone there is passing information across to Powell and Kennedy there's a good chance that they've learnt I'm investigating them" She looked across at Sharon. "It wouldn't take much thought to put two and two together and figure out I'm looking into them on your behalf Sharon" Brenda frowned and took up the thread.

"On the other hand it may simply be as simple as dumb luck on their part, someone saw something and repeated it, god knows sillier things have happened" There was general agreement around the table at that; police work, for all we looked for evidence and proof, in the end a lot of it came down to luck; someone in the right place seeing something unusual and remembering it. With nothing really tangible to go on in how they'd found out we were sniffing around we turned to what we'd learned from our digging with Ana kicking us off.

"There's a limit to what I can get without a warrant but I've been pulling together what I have on our suspects" I watched her pull a face at calling fellow cops that before pushing on. "I started with the usual federal databases and it appears that Di Marco's wife Paula has a taste for the high life. She's traveled to Paris, the Bahama's and London with her friends in the last eighteen months" She shrugged. "It may not be much, but she did travel business class each time" Sharon pursed her lips.

"That's a nice way to travel, especially on a detective's salary. Does she have her own income?" Ana shook her head

"Not really, according to their federal taxes she works part time as a teacher's aide" Ana reached into her folder and pulled out a passport photo, passing it around the table. I glanced at the image, a particularly attractive, stereotypical LA woman, maybe mid-late thirties looking; bleach blonde hair, blue eyes, nice teeth, thin nose, full lips and a perma-tan. I passed it to Maura who frowned at it as Ana resumed speaking.

"I'm looking to see if she has anything outstanding, Homeland Security records of domestic flights, that sort of thing" She shrugged. "It might be nothing" Maura looked up and shook her head.

"I would suggest not, I can clearly see evidence of a number of cosmetic procedures, including Rhinoplasty and what appears to be cosmetic dental work" She shrugged as she placed the photo on the table and frowned down at it before looking up at Ana. "How old is Paula Di Marco?" Ana's eyes flicked back to the folder in front of her.

"She's 44, at least that's what her passport lists" I frowned at the age inconsistency even as Maura's fingernail tapped the photo.

"In that case I would suggest that in addition to the cosmetic work I previously mentioned Paula Di Marco is also receiving what appears to be regular Botox injections to the brow and around the eyes and what appear to be collagen filler injections into the lips" Brenda and Sharon exchanged a glance as I saw Nat nod slowly. Brenda leaned forward.

"Would that be expensive, the nose work I mean?" Maura frowned.

"I am not exactly certain of prices in Los Angeles but I would assume you are looking at between five and ten thousand dollars"

"Closer to ten thousand for a good surgeon with plenty of experience" It was Natalie. At our looks she shrugged, looking at little embarrassed. "I have an interest in what people are doing cosmetic surgery wise" I raised an eyebrow at that and I wasn't the only one; Natalie was one of the last people in the world who should be interested in having plastic surgery done. She shrugged a little before speaking. "My left eyelid was a little lazy; it never opened quite as wide as my right, so it was a little asymmetrical. A news director told me to get it fixed if I was going to ever get work in television so I ended up seeing a couple of plastic surgeons in Denver before having the job done" She shrugged again. "It was a minor procedure, but I was amazed at everything that people have done, so I keep abreast of the industry"

I must admit I was surprised, I'd never thought of Nat having plastic surgery but I suppose her industry was different. No one gave a damn about how straight your nose or teeth were as a cop. Putting that aside I dragged us back to the subject.

"The costs involved sure look like they'd be out of reach of a barely-working detective's wife, plus all these other treatments and the international travel, something seems out of whack" Maura nodded.

"The injections would need to be renewed at least once or twice a year, at a not-insignificant cost" Sharon nodded and looked round the table.

"Taken together with the overseas holidays it suggests someone living beyond their means" She looked back at Brenda. "Something to look into when we can get a court order to get a look at their financials" Brenda nodded thoughtfully before turning to me.

"Jane, could you please fill everyone in on what you've learned" I nodded, pulling out my notebook, turning to a couple of pages of notes, courtesy of a long session trolling through the file archives down in the LAPDs vast records section earlier in the week.

"I pulled the files on each of the three suspects. Just in case I also checked their partners, making sure I hadn't missed anything. Powell's non-Witsec OIS was a ganger, he'd shot it out during a jewellry store robbery gone wrong then fled on foot. Robbery / Homicide responded and they conducted a search, Powell and two uniformed officers found the suspect and he fired at them, they fired back, two hit, Powell's shot was the fatal one" Sharon nodded.

"I remember that one, as I recall there were a number of civilian witnesses with a clear view of everything so I signed off on that one as a good shoot" Natalie nodded.

"So he's in the clear, at least on that one" I made a 'so-so' gesture with my hand.

"Probably" Brenda nodded once.

"What about the rest of the officers, Cortez, Chan and Osmond?" I went back to my notes.

"The Cortez OIS seems fine; he was off duty, filling his car at a gas station when two druggies tried a hold up. He reacted, called on them to drop the weapons and they shot, hitting him in the leg. In response he returned fire, putting a shot through each one, one bled out before the EMTs arrived. The other made a full recovery" Sharon narrowed her eyes.

"I also remember that one, the store security camera's got everything on tape so it was pretty much open and shut" She looked around. "He had his wife and child in the car outside, it was mostly a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time" I nodded, that'd been my take too. I looked down at my notes again and frowned at what I'd found.

"Chan's a thug, no other way to describe it. Looking into his record he's had a string of excessive force issues both as a uniformed cop and later in the fraud task force. He was formally reprimanded three times before he got to Robbery Homicide, once there he seemed to settle down, the excessive force issues seemed to fade off" I shrugged. "Of course, given what I've heard of Taylor's attitude it could be he just turned a blind eye to Chan's behavior" Ana frowned and turned to look at Sharon and Brenda.

"I'm surprised that he was accepted into Robbery / Homicide with that sort of record" Brenda shook her head once abruptly, sending her blonde hair bouncing.

"Taylor's not all that choosy, he's always had a pretty harsh attitude to suspects and I can't see him being concerned by a few criminals upset by rough handling" She thought about it for a moment. "In fact he may prefer it like that' Sharon nodded easily in agreement.

"The entire Robbery / Homicide team under his leadership's developed a particularly lax attitude to due process. He has a whatever-it-takes approach, irrespective of what the law might say, which his team has picked up on" I frowned, cops like that were a throwback to the bad old days, this was a different age, the sort of stuff Korsak had told stories to me of during boring stakeouts, usually starting with 'back in the day', not that he was sorry to see them go. We were supposed to be a lot more professional these days, cops like Taylor and Chan gave the rest of us a bad name.

"Tell me about it" It was Nat. "There are a number of legal suits against the department pending based on Robbery / Homicide cases, Excessive force, lack of due process, even one suggesting evidence tampering, you name it" She shook her head in exasperation. As Maura looked at her, eyebrows rising in surprise before she looked round the table.

"Why has Chief Pope not reigned in Commander Taylor?" Nat shrugged.

"Doesn't want a fight with the union if he can help it, Taylor is tight with the union's leadership, plus Pope's trying to keep things quiet with the court cases, I know several of them are likely to be settled" I frowned.

"So he's basically ignoring what's happening there" Sharon rocked her hand back and forth in a 'so-so' gesture.

"I'm not one of Pope's biggest fans but in his defence, Robbery / Homicide is only one of his issues, he's busy fighting the big picture budgetary and political battles, so things lower down in the weeds tend to get overlooked until they become a mess large enough to warrant his attention"

"Thank god I didn't make Chief" It was Brenda, slowly shaking her head. "I couldn't kiss enough ass to do his job" There was an outbreak of grins around the table before Brenda spotted our response, her voice taking on a questioning tone. "What?"

"Of course not" It was Ana, her voice full of amusement. Maura smoothly added her contribution, in a 'butter wouldn't melt in her mouth' tone

"Absolutely not" Natalie just turned a Cheshire cat grin on Brenda.

"Depends on the ass being kissed I suppose" Brenda scowled at her before looking at Sharon.

"Not a word Sharon Raydor, not one word" Sharon tried on a completely innocent look; it didn't fit all that well with the smile that threatened to appear. I smiled too, but held my tongue, besides the others had about covered it. Maura nodded and smiled at me, obviously appreciating my restraint, something I wasn't all that renowned for, before pulling us back to the subject.

"What about Detective Osmond?" I looked down and flipped a few pages to my notes on him.

"His OIS was pretty straightforward as well" I ran my finger down the page till I found the passage I was looking for, copied from the OIS findings.

"During the shoot-out with the suspect, Detective Osmond managed to move round to a point where he had a clear line of sight to the suspect. He aimed his weapon at the suspect and called upon him to drop his weapon. This was observed by two uniformed officers nearby. The suspect turned and pointed his weapon at Detective Osmond, who fired his weapon, as did another officer whose shot missed. Detective Osmond's shot hit the suspect in the pelvis, shattering the hip and dropping the suspect to the ground. The suspect retained hold of his weapon and aimed at Detective Osmond from his position on the ground, firing one round and missing. Detective Osmond returned fire, his round entering the suspect through the right clavicle, piercing the right lung and the stomach before lodging in the left kidney" I shook my head and then looked up. "The suspect bled out and EMT's on the scene were unable to stabilise the patient, they transported him but he was pronounced DOA" Sharon nodded slowly, obviously remembering the incident.

"I investigated thoroughly, but that certainly appeared to be a clean shoot" I nodded, as did several others around the room. Ana looked up from where she had been re-reading her notes.

"Unless we're looking at some monumental Hydra-scale conspiracy..." We shared a quick grin at the superhero reference. "We have to go with the fact that the shoot was a straightforward one, the presence of the other officers would seem to prove that" Brenda, whose head had tilted a little at the Hydra reference, smiled.

"Each of the Witsec OIS took place with no witnesses except for the shooter's partner. That would seem to rule out any shooting where there was another witness" She glanced around the table, getting nods. "So we need to go back and have another look at those shootings" I nodded with the rest but inwardly groaned. I knew just how much detail was in each of those OIS investigation files, lord knows I'd had enough of them done on me over the years. That reminded me...

"I checked Osmond's, Chan's and Cortez's partners, none of them had an OIS incident that fitted your criteria, each OIS they were involved in had bystanders and other cops as witnesses" I shrugged. "For whatever that's worth" Nat looked round the table before her gaze settled on where Sharon and Brenda were sitting together.

"What is our response to you being followed yesterday" Naturally we'd run the plate, it turned out to be the unmarked assigned to Detective Luke Farrar, Detective Tony Osmond's partner, something confirmed when Ana and I had identified him from photos. Brenda shrugged.

"While it's a concern, we don't have anything concrete to go on" At Maura's surprised look Sharon spoke up.

"Yes, we believe they were following us, but we've nothing that would stand up in a court of law" Now it was Nat who looked surprised.

"You're joking" I shook my head.

"Nat, they could claim any number of reasons they were in the vicinity, all of which would make it look like a coincidence" I could tell Nat wasn't all that happy with their conclusion however, with obvious reluctance, she changed the subject.

"I've been doing some of my own research as well, anonomously trolling some of the bulletin boards, chat rooms and social media that are popular with LAPD cops. There's a vast amount of info there, mostly either inappropriate or completely useless as you might expect, but there was some that was useful" Brenda nodded, interest in her eyes.

"Such as?" Nat shrugged, her expressive face not hiding her disdain.

"A lot of it's pretty sexist and downright mysogenist, as you'd imagine given the frat boy sensabilities of a lot of cops, for example there's some pretty ugly stuff there about most of us" I grimaced, seeing similar reactions around the table. As women, both gay and attractive, I could easily imagine some of the crap being posted; I'd seen it before plenty of times. Nat nodded. "It's the usual garbage we've all encountered before, however Julia Humphries, Di Marco's partner, is mentioned a number of times. Some of it's in the same vein, attractive female detective who won't sleep with her colleagues so suggestions she's gay or frigid, the usual rubbish that gets trotted out" There were shared looks all round the room, that sort of shit was all way too common. Natalie nodded then continued.

"However there were several comments by others rebutting that, they report that she likes to party very hard at the top end of town, perhaps a little too hard, including two suggesting that she particularly favours venues where cocaine and exctasy are openly used by the clientele" Sharon leaned forward, her chin resting on her hand as a finger tapped her lips for a moment before she spoke.

"Did it mention which venues?" Nat nodded and tapped her tablet, waking it up and checking a file.

"The two mentioned were the Marble Bar and Crossroads, apparently both are very upmarket, expensive places popular with celebrities. Women don't get in there unless they're both attractive and 'appropriately' dressed" She put air quotes around appropriately; I could guess what she meant, dressed like a slut to advertise that you were available and easy. Sharon nodded.

"I've heard about Crossroads, the vice squad has it on their radar, apparently drugs there are readily available to regular clients" She glanced around the table. "I'm not familiar with the Marble Bar" Brenda shook her head.

"Me neither, but it seems that both are hangouts for the beautiful people. I can imagine both aren't cheap, but Detective Humphries seems to be a regular there" Ana nodded.

"Running with celebrities, dressing to fit in, easy access to drugs, it's an expensive lifestyle for a detective's salary unless she has a boyfriend or sugar daddy paying her bills" I looked down at the image of her that Sharon passed around, she looked attractive, a bit sharp at the edges but with some makeup she'd be able to tone that down, in the dim lights and strobes of a club she'd probably be very pretty. Looking up I spoke.

"There were a couple of other things I dredged up as well" I looked round, seeing everyone's attention turn back to me before I looked back down at my notes. "Kennedy and Di Marco had served together before he joined Robbery / Homicide. They were partners almost five years before that back in Vice. In addition, Kennedy wrote a recommendation supporting Di Marco's request for transfer" There were nods around the table, it wasn't much but it was another piece of a jig saw. We didn't have all that many pieces so far, so where this one fit wasn't clear, but I was sure it would, eventually. The others obviously thought so too, as Sharon spoke, her voice thoughtful.

"That's a good point, we'll need to look into any other connections between Kennedy and Powell and Di Marco and Humphries" Maura nodded, looking up at me and smiling.

"I might also suggest we look for a connection between those officers and others in Robbery / Homicide, such as Detective Osmond and his partner Detective Farrar, now that we know they too are involved in the conspiracy" She paused for a moment\ then continued, her voice carrying a considering tone. "A personal connection would greatly facilitate the recruitment process of fellow officers into criminal behavior" I smiled, Maura connecting the dots and looking for connections as usual. We'd worked together so long and so well that I really don't want to contemplate how well I'd function without her there as a second opinion, a sounding board and a second pair of eyes, she came at things from a different perspective, nothing like how I did, but equally valid. I suddenly remembered there was one other fact I'd found.

"I did some digging and I found out who was lead on that investigation into the last of the Witsec deaths, Esteban Alonso; it was Kennedy and Powell" The room was quiet for a few seconds as everyone took it in before Brenda smiled, entirely without humour.

"It certainly seems that everything we have leads back to those two officers"


	47. Chapter 47

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**47 Interview with a porn star**

Brenda's viewpoint

At first glance Madison Ashley; real name Louise Smith, looked like the quintessential adult star, wickedly voluptuous curves, the golden tan, a long tousled mane of cascading blonde hair, endless toned legs and a lovely face, the California beach girl fantasy turned truly carnal flesh. On closer look you could see the differences, the wide blue eyes, contacts covering brown ones that had seen too much, the overly emphasised lips, enhanced to look good on camera wrapped around a cock, the too slim body to negate the extra pounds the camera put on, with breasts too large for the frame and the clothes she'd worn, all designed to emphasize it all, all perched on a set of jeweled heels so extreme and ridiculously high that even Maura might have baulked at them.

Her name had turned up as sharing an address with Tyfannii right before she'd latched onto D-Tap, if anyone could give us a bit more background on our witness hopefully Madison would be the one so I'd sent Jane to bring her in for a chat, something that had caused a stir as she'd strolled through headquarters, Tyfannii had been a sensation, but Madison was a star and it was obvious that plenty of male cops were fans. In fact I'd had to turn down Julio's request to sit in on the interview, his hurt expression not helped by the snickers from the other members of the team. No doubt he was glued to the screen in the electronics room.

Walking into Interrogation Room Two I moved to my seat as Lieutenant Flynn followed me in and closed the door as I took her in, at close range she was as lovely as she'd appeared on the camera's in the electronics room, but I could see a hardness there, nothing you could definitely put your finger on, just something in her eyes as they regarded me coolly. Sitting I laid a file out in front of me, then looked up and smiled.

"Ms. Ashley, I'm Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson, thank you for coming in" She sat there, openly assessing me, before nodding once.

"Hi, seeing as you asked so nicely..." She nodded at Jane leaning up against the wall. …"I thought it might be a good idea, before some people in uniforms asked not quite so nicely" I smiled reassuringly at her as Andy took the seat next to me and flipped open a note pad, as I started the interview.

"I'm very pleased that you came in; let me say first off you're not in any trouble today, we just have an investigation underway you may be able to help us with. As I said, I'm Deputy Chief Johnson and this is Lieutenant Flynn and of course you know Detective Rizzoli" I watched her for a moment as she glanced at them both, taking them in before coming back to regard me as I smiled, curious. "I'm surprised you get away with that as a working name, haven't they come after you for trademark infringement?" She smiled, revealing an expensively perfect set of gleaming white teeth.

"Serves them right for using two of the most common female names in America, can't trademark Christian names after all" She shrugged. "They tried, not long after I'd started to build a profile in the industry and a fan base they tried to shut me down, but I had a good lawyer and they lost" She suddenly grinned. "Turns out the judge was a fan too, he awarded costs against them" I smiled back at her and bobbed my head agreeably.

"That always helps" I leaned forward a little, the open file in front of me. "The reason we asked you to come down was that we'd just like to ask you some questions about a former associate of yours, Stacy Kebbler" She looked confused for just a moment then shook her head.

"I don't know anyone by that name, unless I've met them under their working name"

"She's not in the same line of work as you, but she does use another name. Does the name Tyfannii ring any bells? That's with one y, two n's and two i's" Ashley sat back and nodded, realisation dawning.

"Oh yeah, now her I know, is Stacy her real name?" I nodded.

"I understood you shared a place with her some time back"

"Yeah, the real estate agent knew I was looking to rent a place and that I wanted another girl to share the costs with, it was a nice apartment in a security building, but the price was pretty steep so I was looking to split the costs.. He had another girl in the same boat and put us in contact" She shrugged. "We got on well enough to give it a go and ended up sharing for over a year"

"What can you tell us about your housemate?" She sat back, interlacing her fingers on the table in front of her and obviously gathering her thoughts before she spoke.

"Tyf was OK, a bit hustling but who isn't in this town? I figured she was on the game pretty early given the way she was dressed when she went out to work" She smiled, a little cynicism entering her voice. "The only people who go out in corporate suits at nine at night are late night news anchors, casino pit bosses and high end hookers" I nodded, I hadn't thought about it like that but it made sense.

"What else can you tell us?" Madison's tanned and shapely shoulders rose and fell.

"She was like any number of pretty girls in LA, arrived looking for fame and fortune and discovered homecoming queens are a dime a dozen out here. She had a few options, get a real job waiting tables or working at Starbucks; get a guy to look after her or earn a living on her back" She shrugged again. "She chose the latter, like a lot do" I nodded as Andy took notes. "She was pretty enough to make a decent living but she was always focused on living well, she wanted to get rich quick"

"It was that important to her?"

"Hell yeah, it was all she was focused on, she was really envious of women who'd sunk their claws into a meal ticket and rode the gravy train all the way to wealth, she was real bitter about it too, 'easy money' she called it" Madison waved her hand dismissively. "Definitely easier than turning tricks for overpaid executives who wanted to live out their fuck the cheerleader fantasy" I frowned, I'd been a cheerleader once, a very long time ago.

"There's a lot of call for that?" She smiled.

"Yeah, apparently it's one of the most popular fantasies, up there with secretaries, teachers, nurses and female cops" She tilted her head to regard Jane speculatively for a moment, eyes narrowed and her thoughts obvious, before glancing back at me. "God knows there's enough of that in my industry too, I've lost track of the number of cheerleader or cops scenes I've done. I do know Tyf had an array of costumes she'd wear for her john's, she used to charge more for doing fantasies" I nodded slowly and made a show of checking something in the file in front of me, all part of the theatrics of an interview.

"I understand that was before she had her, rather extensive, cosmetic surgery done" Madison nodded.

"Yeah, she asked me about who'd done mine, she wanted to reinvent herself so I steered her to Double D Dave, best guy in the business for those in the business. He's done all the industry's big names, Jenna, Savanna, Jessica, Julia Ann, Amber, Lisa Ann, he's their go to guy for the original work and on-going maintenance" I frowned at her term, confused.

"Maintenance?" She nodded slowly.

"Yeah, doing this job's hard on your body, long hours, repeated takes, it's not for everyone. The industry's got an insatiable appetite for new faces willing to do anything, no matter how depraved, plus it spits people out, the camera hates lines and wrinkles, saggy tits and loose labia's, so Dave gets lots of work tightening everything back up" I made certain I kept an impassive face, something I noticed Jane was less successful at given Madison's candid statement.

"Did Tyfannii look at going into the industry?" At my question Madison laughed, threw her head back and laughed openly before finally settling down and grinning at me.

"God no, that woman wouldn't work in an iron lung and fucking on cue for the camera day in, day out for hours on end is hard work, especially the gang bang, gonzo and anal orgy scenes" There was a muted cough from a red-faced Jane and Andy's note taking had slowed dramatically as Madison continued. "She was looking to make maximum cash from minimum effort, basically she wanted to find herself a rich guy and screw him in bed and out of his money" Madison shrugged. "Besides, jobs in the industry these days are all about the gonzo, no story, throw four scenes together, tie them together with a theme like a black guy gang bang or ass to mouth or lesbian fisting or midget anal DP and push it out to the customer" I saw Jane's cheeks redden even more as Madison shook her head, her downturned mouth making plain what she thought. "I got in and made a name before that crap took off, got an exclusive contract as a Cavalcade Cutie, which means as long as my movies sell, I can avoid that shit"

I nodded, I'd never thought that her industry had tiers of success, but considering her words it made sense, the adult business was a business first and foremost and like every business there were winners and losers. Madison quite obviously intended to be a winner, which begged the question…

"And when they don't?" She sat back and stretched her arms out, coincidentally calling attention to her most prominently enhanced assets. I guessed they had to be silicon, saline wasn't that gravity resistant, especially ones that size.

"Then I'll get the hell out and sip cocktails on the beach for the rest of my life" She smiled slyly. "Invested almost every cent I've ever made into commercial and residential property, a couple more years and I'll be ready to comfortably retire, I can walk away from the industry and never look back" I nodded, definitely a winner.

"So Tyfannii had a lot of work done in a short period of time?"

"Hell yeah, one of the biggest jobs I've ever heard of. I mean there are other people with more work, but not done all at once" I made a mental note to determine just how extensive Tyfannii's work actually had been; perhaps Maura might be the best one for that line of enquiry; Madison meanwhile was still talking. "She was in hospital for almost two weeks all up, then off work for over six months getting everything healed. Lucky for her she'd been saving most of her money so she could afford the work and the recovery time"

"She was staying with you at that point?" Madison nodded.

"Yeah, she was with me while she healed up" I thought it over and then spoke.

"Do you know where she is now?" Madison tilted her head to regard me as she ever so casually brushed her blonde locks back out of the way, every move seemed a little too polished, too practiced; this was a woman who had spent a life building an image, to the point that it was her life now. It made me wonder just how likely she was to be able to walk away from it all, no matter her intentions.

"After she got all the work done and all healed up, she went straight, started living off some rich rappers. Heard she was in the news recently though, her tame rapper went and got himself killed" I nodded once.

"That pretty much sums it up" Madison's mouth quirked a little cynically, it really looked out of place on that angelic face.

"She won't be alone for long; she'll have latched onto a new meal ticket before you know it. Tyf was never one for sentimentality, for her it's all about living well, if you're not part of that she'll move on as soon as look at you" I raised an eyebrow.

"Is that what happened to you?" She sat back and waved her hand negatively, all exceptionally long bejeweled nails and oversized gold rings.

"Me, nah, like I said we shared a place for a while, that was all. After she healed up from all that surgery, she went trolling her new bait at the rap clubs. Given how she looked, it didn't take her long to find someone. She eventually moved out but paid everything on time before she did, more than I can say about some roomies I've had over the years" She shrugged again. "Maybe it had something to do with me helping her out when she got out of the hospital"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I actually looked after her for after she came home from the hospital, when she was so stiff and sore that she could hardly move, helped change some of the harder to deal with dressings for the first two weeks, that sort of stuff" At my raised eyebrow she smiled. "I have a full First Aid certificate, CPR, AED, the works. I thought it might come in handy so I took it when I had a chance" She nodded. "It was good to put it to use"

"A helpful skill, I'm sure Tyfannii appreciated it" She pursed her lips as she looked away for a moment, obviously giving it some thought, then looked up at me.

"I think she appreciated that someone cared enough to keep an eye out for her. Not a lot of that in our jobs" I nodded, looking down at my questions and wondering if there was anything else.

"Thank you Miss Ashley, you've been very helpful" She waved airily.

"You weren't asking anything difficult. Besides, I remembered who you are" I looked across at her with my head tilted, trying to remember if we'd met, though I'd doubt that I would have forgotten her.

"I beg your pardon?"

"That sniper nutjob last year" I nodded, oh yes I remembered that one, I still had occasional nightmares about the women we'd found, even as Madison continued. "Yeah, well I worked with Iris and Kathy pretty regularly over the past couple of years, we all worked contract for Cavalcade Films, you were the one who found the psycho who murdered Iris" I suddenly remembered that of the six women killed by a mentally disturbed woman one of the victims had been an adult actress, Iris Park, who had performed under the name Tiffani Tang. I nodded.

"I was just sorry that we couldn't stop the person who killed her sooner" Madison shrugged.

"Not a lot of people care about what happens to porn stars" She grimaced. "Most people class us with hookers, bad things happen to us and no one cares" She looked across at me. "You did, you got justice for Iris" I looked down for a moment, embarrassed by her praise, then looked up.

"It was my job" She shook her head.

"You also arranged for the City to pay for a top therapist for Kathy, which wasn't" She smiled. "Thanks for that Miss Johnson, it helped her" She shook her head. "Well as much as anything could after that" I nodded, I knew what she meant, how do you help someone whose lover's head exploded when a 50 caliber sniper's bullet hit them while they were resting in your arms? I pursed my lips at the memory, and the aftermath, then looked up at Madison.

"She was talking of quitting the industry and maybe heading home. Did she?" Madison nodded.

"Yeah, after everything, she couldn't do it anymore...She went back to Boise, studying to be a nurse or teacher or something" She smiled, a small wan thing. "Something normal" I nodded and gave her a small smile of my own.

"Normal's a good thing" I thought of my work, the things I see as part of it. "Or so I'm told" She shook her head.

"I'm afraid I wouldn't know either"


	48. Chapter 48

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**48 Maura's Medical Report**

Jane's viewpoint

We'd done a lot of digging in the last two days, finding all we could on Stacy Kebbler. One part of that was finding out what she'd done to transition from Stacy to Tyfannii, which is why we were all sitting round the squad room as Maura prepared to brief us in, giving us the background on Tyfannii's monumental surgical history. As she stepped up to the front of the squad room all talking stopped and everyone turned to hear what she had to say. It was a full house with the whole team and Ana, plus Nat who'd been quite upfront and admitted to Brenda that she was intensely curious about Tyfannii's work.

"I have acquired the medical records of our suspect" Maura frowned. "Well, those that pertain to her surgical…enhancements at least" Gabriel frowned.

How'd you get them Doc, wouldn't they be covered by patient privilege?" A few other people nodded at that, Maura however was unfazed.

"Normally yes, they would be, unless the doctor and patient agree to provide them voluntarily, however the surgeon in question derives the bulk of their income by enhancing professional adult industry performers. This includes the particularly heavy use of silicon for implants, something which is actively discouraged by medical authorities" Maura tossed her hair and looked back at him, holding court as we watched. "I called upon the surgeon, one David Godowsky, and explained that I was seeking the records as part of an ongoing murder investigation" She shrugged. "He was inclined to be less than cooperative, however when I pointed out that going through the subpoena process would deliver me the documents anyway, at the cost of significantly increasing my displeasure with his attitude, he was inclined to change his mind" She smiled a little wider.

"As did a suggestion that doing so would probably prompt me to discuss his licence and professional standards and practices with the California Board of Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgeons" She smiled slightly. "Mr. Godowsky became very cooperative after that" There were smiles all round at that, Maura came across all soft and nice, but when she wanted to she could be as hard-assed and demanding as the rest of us, just way more polite about it. "As for the patient, she waved her right to confidentiality as she had agreed her surgeon could publicise her work for promotional purposes, in return for a slightly lower overall cost" There were nods all round before she continued.

"Turning to our patient, as you have no doubt noticed their enhancements are quite impressively extensive" Sanchez shook his head.

"That's one way to describe it" Tao looked over at him and grinned.

"Care to suggest a few more Sanchez" He got a finger in return as we snickered, before Natalie smiled.

"The Silicon Sensation? Plastic Fantastic? How about Top Heavy…" Brenda interrupted her before she could finish.

"Thank you Natalie, we get the picture" There were wide grins round the room as Brenda turned back to Maura, who was trying to hide her smirk, making me realise once again how far she'd come since we'd met. The Maura I'd first met back in Boston would have been petrified stiff by the joking and inappropriate behavior while she was trying to deliver a briefing, now though she could see the humour in it and let it flow past her while still appreciating it. "You were saying Doctor Isles..." Maura tipped her head in appreciation to Brenda and continued.

"Thank you Chief, I have examined her surgical records and I must say it is concerning, our suspect exhibits a level and number of cosmetic procedures that may indicate a tendency to body dysmorphic disorder" Buzz grimaced.

"Let me guess, she hated her body and wanted it changed?" Maura nodded, acknowledging his pretty accurate summation.

"Effectively yes, I must admit I find the suspect's list of procedures to be both alarmingly long and disturbingly significant" Brenda pursed her lips and then sighed, obviously expecting to hear the worst.

"What are we looking at Doctor?" Maura looked down at the list and her brow furrowed.

"It is almost easier to ask what has not been subject to modification" Brenda's eyes widened in surprise.

"That bad?" Maura looked up and nodded slowly.

"I am afraid so. The most obvious at initial examination is of course the breast augmentation via silicone implants, from 30C to 40DD. The use of silicone is of course a concern, the long term health issues from a potential leak from a silicone implant are significant, one of the reasons most ethical surgeons have switched to saline in recent years"

"Yeah, but they're not as…" Sanchez suddenly realised we were all looking at him, making him pause. "…y'know, perky" Ana rolled her eyes.

"You mean bolt on rocket nose cones" There were snorts from the women in the room and even a few of the guys as she continued. "There's nothing like natural breasts and those things are nothing like natural" There was a small outbreak of sniggers and chuckles before Brenda shook her head and focused our attention back on Maura.

"What else are we looking at Doctor Isles?" Maura sighed, lifting the folder and flipping through it.

"Rhinoplasty" She glanced up. "A comprehensive reshaping of the nose, I gather it was somewhat wider than it is now, it has been significantly narrowed and the tip redefined considerably to give it its current aesthetically pleasing upturned shape" She glanced down at her notes and continued. "Blepharoplasty, which includes a reshaping of the eyelids and permanent eyeliner tattooed on" Natalie grimaced.

"God knows makeup can be a hassle at times, but tattooed?" She shuddered theatrically. "No thanks" Tao frowned.

"Reshaped? Why exactly?" Maura looked up and smiled at his question.

"I infer you mean why the eyelids were reshaped, not the actual procedure Lieutenant?" At his nod she continued. "The eyelids were reshaped to make them tighter, thus when the subjects eyelids are open, they retract further up the surface of the cornea and thus expose all of the iris, making her eyes appear larger than normal, many cultures consider wide eyes as a sign of innocence" She shrugged. "In this case I doubt the subject would qualify but the appearance is there" I nodded.

"You're not wrong there" I got a quick glance and a ghost of a smile before she continued.

"Genioplasty to reshape the chin to give a smaller, more pointed appearance, buttock augmentation via silicone implants to enlarge her derriere to promote an esthetically pleasing shape, similarly cheek augmentation via implants to give a more prominent cast to the cheeks, backed up by Orthognathic surgery" She looked up at us as she described the procedure. "That particular procedure involves the controlled fracturing of the majority of the facial bones and reshaping of them during the healing process. In this case the work has been quite extensive" I frowned at the thought and could see wincing around the room; Provenza was the one to put it into words.

"Jesus H Christ, who the hell does that to themselves willingly?" Ana spoke up quietly.

"Someone who wants to completely reinvent themselves as someone new" Maura smiled.

"An accurate summation, the work would be arduous, prolonged and quite painful in recovery but allows a very significant reshaping of the cranial bones to better support reconstructive surgery on the musculature and ligaments of the face, resulting in a more effective facial reshaping. Clearly anyone seeking that procedure would need to be very, very motivated" Natalie shook her head.

"I think our suspect needs a doctor all right, a shrink though, not a plastic surgeon" Flynn nodded and spoke up.

"It explains how her face changed so much" There were nods round the room at that, including from Maura, before she looked back down at her notes.

"The subject's lips have had a surgical procedure to reshape them to an aesthetically more pleasing appearance, together with regular and ongoing collagen injections to ensure plumpness" She frowned slightly as she continued. "There have been numerous smaller surgical procedures carried out to further refine the subject's facial features, building on the more major procedures I have mentioned" Maura looked up but no one had any questions, I think we were all too appalled to ask, so she looked back down to her folder and continued.

"Otoplasty to reduce and reshape the ears and pinning them closer to the cranium, significant liposuction treatments to remove almost every major fatty deposit in the subject's body, backed up by the use of Cryolipolysis" Once again looking up she explained. "That entails the application of extreme cooling to specific fat cells to destroy them" There were fascinated and appalled nods around the room, even from the guys, the mind-boggling extent of the work was sinking in to everyone.

"I also note that the subject has had her vocal cords subjected to a Cricothyroid approximation; that is surgery to pull selected cartilages in the larynx closer together, resulting in a raised vocal pitch. This has been accompanied by laser tuning; using a medical laser to further raise the subject's natural vocal pitch, resulting in an artificially heightened pitch, similar to that of a much younger woman" Gabriel nodded slowly.

"Yeah, she talks like a teenage girl, really weird coming from someone who couldn't be further from a schoolgirl if she tried" Maura flashed him a quick smile and nod before continuing.

"To further improve on the subject's shape and to create an 'hourglass' figure, the lowest two vertebral ribs; the costae fluctuantes, have been removed, a procedure with which I have the very greatest concerns" Maura looked round the room. "Whilst the subject exhibits a significant narrowing of the waist with their removal, the role of those ribs is to protect the lower organs of the torso, their removal greatly increases the chance of significant internal injury from external trauma" There was stunned silence for a moment.

"She's had two ribs removed?" It was Brenda, her face and voice both obviously appalled. "I thought her waist was small, but that's insane" Maura frowned.

"Whilst perhaps not fitting the exact clinical definition of insanity the subject's determination to rebuild herself to this extent would certainly be supportive of my earlier hypothesis of body dysmorphia" She shrugged, both elegantly and eloquently. "A clinical psychiatric specialist in such disorders would be required to rule on her exact mental state, however the significant extent of surgical intervention the subject has willingly undergone would certainly be of interest to a mental health specialist" Provenza snorted.

"I'm no specialist, but based on what you're telling us, she sure sounds like she's crazy in my book" Sanchez nodded enthusiastically.

"Mine too" There were nods around the room at that as Maura continued.

"Finally I note there have been several other minor procedures. In particular collagen injections into areas of the soles of the feet, the injections providing extra padding when wearing extreme shoes" Gabriel frowned then spoke, a little hesitantly.

"Ah Doc, I hate to point this out but a lot of what you wear might be called kinda extreme" Maura nodded, conceding the point, before smiling.

"Quite true Sergeant Gabriel; I am however very particular about which shoes I wear. I buy shoes that are well made and I am quite fortunate to have feet that are both quite small and possess no abnormalities such as long toes which might cause ongoing orthopedic problems. It is also helped by the posture you adopt and the care with which you walk. In many women's cases however they wear shoes which are mass produced and often make no concessions to the wearer's feet" Brenda nodded.

"In this case it seems our suspect's partial to Lucite stripper heels with six or seven inch heels and huge soles" I had to suppress a smile, after all Maura had a set of almost identical stripper heels in a shoebox carefully buried at the back of her collection, she brought them out very occasionally for some role-playing fun, not that she walked round in them much, though the sight of her in them last time had prompted me to suggest we should consider getting a pole... Based on the quick, sultry glance she shot me from under hew lowered eyelids Maura was remembering that too, before she sobered and continued.

"A perfect example of the ill-fitting shoes I was referring to. In this case the suspect has had regular injections of collagen to provide additional padding on the soles of their feet"

"So our suspect has a shoe fetish and the surgery to support it" It was Provenza. "Marvelous" Brenda shot him a glance then looked back at Maura.

"Is there anything else of consequence Doctor Isles?" Maura frowned.

"Aside from the more obvious, the peroxide blonde hair with extensions, the false acrylic fingernails and toenails, the eyelash extensions, electric blue contact lenses to cover her natural brown eye colour, the excessive exposure to UV light in tanning salons to obtain her current state of uninterrupted tan, extensive and ongoing electrolysis sessions to remove all hair below the neck, the piercings through the tongue, nipples, belly button and clitoris and the significant amount of cosmetic dentistry and teeth whitening procedures undertaken, the only remaining major surgical procedure listed is a Labiaplasty" Maura looked round the room at each of the females in the room and I inwardly winced in anticipation for what I was sure was coming. I wasn't wrong. "The subject has had her labia surgically reduced and reshaped into a more aesthetically pleasing shape which also and quite deliberately exposes more of the clitoris"

Every woman in the room visibly cringed in reaction; Sanchez looked like he was going to say something, but wisely changed his mind, his mouth shutting with a click. It was Brenda who summed it up for us, her voice low and wondering.

"Oh my god"


	49. Chapter 49

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**49 Building a Carpenter's Box**

Jane's viewpoint

After our interview with Madison Ashley we'd had a much better handle on our case's direction, sure as hell the Chief had wasted no time; she'd walked out of the interview room, called us all together and told us to focus our investigations on Tyfannii, in her words our key witness had just been upgraded to prime suspect.

Sanchez and Provenza were sent off with a warrant to search our vic's safety deposit box, Flynn and Gabriel got sent out to canvas Carpenter's known associates for any more information on Tyfannii, Ana was working the phones back to Indiana digging up whatever she could on Stacy Kebbler while Tao and I were sent off to Andrea Hobbs's office to request a warrant to look into our suspect's financials, including anything she might have had stashed away. Ringing her first, Andrea was good as her word, she'd said an hour and 58 minutes later she handed us the signed warrant, along with a cocky smile and a reminder I owed her a decent beer next time we caught up, in her case that meant something either German or Australian, she had a taste for good, high-alcoholic content imported brews, I just smiled and nodded before we headed out.

I liked Andrea, she was straightforward and spoke her mind, she didn't deal in the sort of meaningless, cover your ass lawyer-speak that I'd got from way too many lawyers on both sides of the fence. Her partner Mendoza was a touchy one though; a little hot-headed and short-tempered with something to prove, though Maura had just smiled at me when I told her, apparently Mendoza's what I was like when she first met me, at least in her opinion. I'd hotly denied it at the time, but there was a fair bit of truth in that, just another example of how having her in my life had changed me.

We'd headed downtown to the main LA branch of the U.S. Bank. Stacy Kebbler had opened an account with them back in Indiana years ago and still maintained it out here, plus another in her Tyfannii name with the local branch that was our next stop.

It was amazing what people will do when police turn up with a warrant, the manager at the downtown branch of U.S. Bank provided a print out of all the transactions Stacy had made in the last few years, it all looked normal enough, money in and out, a small balance, then it had changed just on a year ago, mostly deposits over the last twelve months, she now had over $100,000 in her checking account, deposited in regular three to five thousand dollar lots. She also had a credit card that seemed to rack up bills of around $10,000 a month, mostly shopping and beauty stuff, paid off by another account that I was almost certain was her boyfriends, though Tao would confirm that when we got back to the office. It all added up to a huge points balance on her card, that's for sure.

The big prize was a safety deposit box she'd opened here in Los Angeles almost a year ago, not long after she'd got together with Carpenter, so we traipsed down to the secure storage area and waited while the manager went and got the box. I felt my eyebrows lift when he walked back in leading a security guard who was carrying a metal container about the size of a small suitcase. The only safety deposit boxes I'd ever seen were the sort in movies, a small box that was about six inches wide and deep and maybe 18 inches long. I glanced up to see Tao's eyes had widened too, he caught my eye and pulled a puzzled face even as the guard placed it on the table with a solid thunking noise.

The manager stepped forward with a special security mill key that was kept in a different safe and slid the key in, turning it and unlocking it with a definite click, loud in the silent room, before stepping back and waving his hand at the box in an 'after you' gesture' I nodded and reached out, lifting the lid and pushing it back till it rested on it's hinges, even as I felt my heart do that famous 'skip a beat' thing as I took in the contents.

I know Maura's rich, even though I really don't like to think about it all that much, but that was all discreet stuff, this on the other hand was something else. The box was filled with cash, all stacked in neat bundles held together with bulldog clips, forming a layer that covered the bottom of the box to a depth of several inches. I looked up and saw Tao's eyes had narrowed, before he reached into a pocket and produced a pair of gloves, pulling them on before he reached out and picked up one of the bundles. He ran his thumb over the end of the wad of cash, which I noticed was all hundred dollar bills, before laying it back with the rest.

"At a rough guess, there has to be a hundred bills here, ten thousand dollars right there" I nodded slowly as he continued. "Figure forty or fifty bundles, they all look the same size…" His voice trailed off, if he was right, there was the better part of half a million in cash right here.

There was also a series of different-sized envelopes sitting on top of the cash layer, curious, I reached out and grabbed the smallest one, squeezing it's sides and as it gaped open, I turned and upended it into Tao's gloved hand, it was a gold ring, thick and chunky with an intricate design worked into it, definitely way too large and masculine for a woman's finger. We exchanged a glance before I grabbed another envelope, this one heavier, dumping the contents into Mike's hand, it was a woman's gold necklace with a diamond pendant that must have been four, maybe five carets hanging from it. I'd learned all I ever needed to know about diamonds when Ana and I had trudged around LA's top jewelry stores at lunchtime for several weeks looking for Maura's engagement ring, I remembered enough to know this one was a damned nice example. I shook my head before grabbing a black box, opening it to find a men's watch in its case, all gleaming metal and leather and exposed mechanisms sitting there. I held it up to the light, reading off the name.

"Roger Dubuis, never heard of it" Tao shrugged, neither had he, before a discreet cough came from the manager, a slim, middle-aged English guy, Colin Templestone, I'd forgotten he was there. We both looked up to see him smiling a little self-consciously before he spoke.

"If I may, good quality watches are a minor passion of mine" He smiled a little wider. "Roger Dubuis make some of the finest men's watches available, all are collectors pieces and highly sought after" He held his hand out. "May I?" I exchanged a glance with Tao before I handed the box over. He considered it for a few seconds then looked up "Hmm, an Excalibur platinum, still in it's original box, it doesn't look like it has much wear either" He snapped the lid shut and handed it back with a small, soft sigh. "Very nice"

"How much is it worth?" At my question he smiled a little sadly, his voice that of someone who couldn't afford what he really wanted.

"A good quality pre-owned watch such as that would easily fetch two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand dollars, perhaps more given the lack of use and original packaging" I swallowed into a suddenly dry mouth, that was more than Maura's Mercedes SLK AMG-55, I was still a little reluctant to drive it, terrified I'd get a scratch on it, a watch that cost more than that car was insane. Mike barely beat me.

"Holy crap"

"Three hundred thousand dollars?" My voice sounded strange, even to me. He nodded.

"Yes, as I said, perhaps more"

"Jane..." Mike Tao's voice caught my attention, drawing me to look back to where he was checking the insurance manifest of Carpenter's stuff on his tablet. "Definitely on the list but we couldn't find it in the house" We exchanged a glance and a small smile, both thinking the same thing; motive.

An hour later, having written up a short list of the items in the box, we'd got back to the squad room in time to hear the tail end of the other's investigations as they passed them on to the Chief.

Gabriel had spoken to a record producer friend of Carpenters. Apparently Carpenter had grown tired of Tyfannii, he'd been enamored of her when they'd first met but he'd gradually woken up that she was leeching off him, according to the producer he'd decided he was going to get a new girlfriend, someone who actually cared about him rather than seeing him as a walking ATM, and end it with Tyfannii. That had been about two weeks ago and to me that also looked a lot like motive; they were starting to add up.

We were up next and recounted what we'd learned; the looks on everyone's faces pretty much matched ours when we'd looked in the box while the tale of the three hundred thousand dollar watch blew everyone away but as Brenda pointed out, Tyfannii's little well-feathered nest egg certainly counted as both motive and intent.

Provenza and Sanchez were next, the vic's safety deposit box contained cash, contract documents, legal documents and not much else. They had got a copy of his financials and found that he'd been pretty much paying off everything that Tyfannii had racked up on her credit card, she'd probably cost him over a hundred thousand in the almost 12 months they'd been together. I shook my head a little at that, I'd heard of high maintenance but that was just ridiculous.

Ana was next up, it turned out that Stacy Kebbler had been a lot smarter than anyone had expected, very smart in fact, topping her class in economics and the sciences, being let down by poor marks in the social subjects where she had to work with others. A 'loner who had difficulty relating to others' was how her teachers had described her. It sure sounded like the profile of a potential killer to me.

"One more thing Chief" Brenda had cocked her head at Ana and spoke.

"Yes Agent Romanov, don't keep us in suspense" Ana just gave her a sly smile, letting us know she had something good, she did love it when she could spring good news on us.

"Her father was a member of a local gun club and sponsered her into the club. He shot rifles, but the manager remembers Stacy had no interest in rifles, she shot automatic pistols instead, did pretty well at it too as he recalled" There were looks all round the room before the Chief nodded slowly.

"That sounds we have motive, intent and now capability. What we don't have is anything more than circumstantial evidence" She looked round the room. "We need to go have another look in that house" She frowned. "She's not been back yet has she?" Provenza shook his head.

"As it's still a crime scene, she got moved out the same day, escorted by a female police officer while she was still there, she's living in a hotel downtown for the time being" I smirked.

"Probably paid for with D-Tap's credit card too" I was only making a snarky comment but the Chief suddenly frowned.

"That's a good point, Lieutenant Tao, please check on our victim's credit cards and see if they've been used at all" He nodded as Brenda turned to the rest of us. "Everyone else, it's back to the Carpenter house"

By mid-afternoon we'd worked our way through the house, tracing the way from the lounge room up to the bathroom and then into the closet. The Chief assigned the group of uniformed officers with us to check every bush and shrub and garden on the property, looking for a weapon. Inside we turned over the closets, cupboards and everything in between, I looked up from where I was putting the lid back on the cistern in the toilet in Tyfannii's bathroom as the Chief walked in.

"Nothing Detective?" I shook my head.

"Nope, not here at least" I glanced at her. "You really think she hid the gun inside?"

"Almost certainly, she didn't have time to get it off the premises, after all she couldn't know if the neighbors had heard anything and called it in" She shook her head. "No, it's somewhere in the house" We both looked around, I'd gone through the vanity, the mirrored cabinets, the stack of folded towels, looked under everything. Brenda frowned as she looked round, as something occurred to me.

"Y'know, it kinda makes sense, if she did shoot them both, taking a shower straight afterwards would wash off any trace residue from the shots" Brenda nodded.

"Exactly, that's why she was never tested, very smart indeed, but as we've learned young miss two n's and two i's isn't quite as dumb as she makes out" She looked round again, taking in the expensively tiled room, the double sinks, the Jacuzzi, the gold tapware, the rainwater shower big enough for a party and frowned. "If we assume she made sure her prints weren't on the gun she would have wiped it down" I rubbed my chin in thought.

"Didn't put it back though as the fact that it had been recently fired would show up, plus ballistics would match" Brenda nodded, leaning back against the sink as I sank back down onto the edge of the Jacuzzi as she spoke.

"Thus it has to be some place close enough to be hidden in a hurry after she cleaned it" We both looked around, I looked up for an access panel into the roof while Brenda scanned the room again, before her gaze stilled and she spoke quietly 'I used to rent an apartment in DC that had a Jacuzzi, didn't really use it all that much once the novelty wore off though it surely was good for relaxing after a bad day at work" I looked back at her as she continued, seeing her tilting her head as she regarded the Jacuzzi. "Unfortunately long hair tends to clog the drains so I got good at cleaning out the filter. There's a trap that stops objects from going down the drain, as I recall it was a decent size"

I nodded as I looked around, searching for a panel but seeing nothing. I was about to say something when I spotted a tile closest to the wall, it had a couple of small turn screws that held it in. In a flash I was down on my knees and working the four fasteners open, catching it as the tile fell into my hands. As I put it down Brenda appeared behind me with a flashlight, shining it in. Carefully I reached inside and grabbed the edge of the filter and lifted it out only to find it was clean, I stamped down on my dissapoint ment and reached inside, feeling around, suddenly stilling as my fingers felt a familiar shape. Gently I moved it about, jiggling it a bit where it was partially stuffed into the drain, then lifting it out, revealing a SIG P228 9mm automatic pistol. I looked up to see Brenda's satisfied smile.

"Let's get that bagged up please Jane, and down to the lab just as fast as you possibly can"

Several hours later we had confirmation on three key facts, one: we had partial prints of Tyfannii's left index finger inside the tile and her right thumb print on the filter basket; two: the gun was clean of prints and three: that it matched the one that had killed both victims. Maura was just commenting that the report from the lab had stated that there was little oil or grease on the gun, suspiciously so.

"What would cause that?" At my question Maura pulled a face in thought before smiling.

"A degreaser would do it; perhaps you are looking at something that could act as such, combined with a cleaning agent" I regarded her for a moment then spoke.

"What am I looking for?" She rubbed her hands together for a moment in thought then smiled.

"While I will have to test for the exact subject, you may like to look at kitchen detergents, hand sanitizers, floor cleaners, anything that combines both degreasers and cleaners" I nodded, my mind running through what I'd seen in the bathroom back in the house, suddenly I had a thought.

"What about body wash?" Maura shot that thought down though.

"Very probably not, the body generates some oils during the normal day's activities, but normally not enough to require a significant degreasing agent. In fact the area of the body that generates the largest concentration of oils is of course the hair" I looked up to see her small smile as I put it together, Maura letting me come to my own conclusion, drawing a smile in return before I planted a quick kiss on her then raced out, already reaching for my cell phone to let the Chief know I was heading back to the Carpenter place.

It was getting late when I walked back in with the prize to find Brenda standing with Maura in the lab as they looked over a report; both looked up as I held up the evidence bag.

"One oily-hair shampoo, works as both a cleanser and degreaser" They both smiled before Maura spoke, reading from the file.

"Would it be one that contains apple scent and trace elements of citrus blossom and green tea?" I nodded, passing the bottle across.

"The very same" Maura smiled and tapped the file.

"Then it appears to be a match for the substance used to clean the murder weapon" She frowned, as if remonstrating with herself for jumping to a conclusion. "Of course I will need to run a full set of comparison tests to match the two samples" We exchanged a look before I smiled then looked to Brenda. "

"Want me to go get her Chief?" Brenda tipped her head.

"Please Detective, I have a number of questions for Miss Kebbler" I checked my watch; it was a Friday evening, after six, making me frown. "Do we have the name of the hotel she was staying at?" I thought about it then shook my head.

"It should be in the file upstairs" I went to turn away when Maura reached out and laid her hand on my arm.

"You could always just check" At my confused look she smiled. "Based on what you have told me about her previous interview, she is a compulsive social media user, thus there is every likelihood that she has posted or tweeted her location to her numerous followers" I smiled and fished out my phone as Brenda spoke.

"An excellent idea Doctor, let's hope she remains true to form" I spent a minute or so finding her, before hitting pay dirt, I read her latest Facebook post before looking up.

"She's at Integral Restaurant and Bar downtown; apparently she's hanging with some guy called Oak?" I clicked on the tag and snorted at what appeared. "Our Tyfannii certainly has a type, he's apparently also a rapper" Brenda nodded.

"Nor does she let grass grow under her feet" She frowned. "Please get some back up and go get her, I'd like to have a talk to our suspect at the first available opportunity" I nodded and headed upstairs, most of the team had already left, so I grabbed Sanchez and Ana and we headed out.

Integral Restaurant and Bar was a somewhat pretentious, over the top place, the sort of hangout the beautiful people go to be seen at. The door bitches were all for giving us a hard time but the sight of three badges and three Glock's put paid to that, suddenly they couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

Walking in we moved around the tables, looking for our target, unfortunately she wasn't the only blonde bimbo on the premises, but finally we spotted her snuggled up to some black guy and surrounded by some more at a private alcove. I caught the other's eyes and nodded in the right direction, before heading over. One of the rapper's posse stepped up as I approached.

"Dunno who you are but this is a private party" I shrugged.

"The only one I'm interested in is the blonde" He laughed.

"Her, she's hot, what you want her for?" I saw Ana and Sanchez take up positions to each side of the table then looked back.

"We need to have a talk to her about her last boyfriend" He smiled even wider.

"Word is she fucked him to death" I shook my head once and pushed my coat out of the way, letting him see the badge.

"I suppose you're right, a 9 mill to the head can fuck up your whole day" He lost the smile.

"Are you serious?" At my look he nodded once. "Oh shit, OK" He stepped back as I moved to the table.

"Tyfannii, sorry to cut your mourning period short but we need you to come with us" She looked up from her location under the guys arm.

"Why, whatever's the problem?" Her voice was still that breathy little girl sound, but I didn't miss the slight undertone of tension.

"We have a number of questions that we need to ask you" She looked around, seeing Ana and Sanchez standing there as well then looked back at me.

"Can I come in tomorrow? I'm kinda busy here with my new friends" I shook my head once.

"Now" The black guy she was cuddling into looked up at me, I recognised him as the rapper Oak, apparently short for Oscar Albert Kelly; rappers and their street names, go figure.

"Hey, what's so urgent you have to break up our party?" Sanchez took a step forward, enough to attract his attention as his hand carefully dropped to move his coat, exposing his pistol.

"A murder investigation sir, so perhaps you and your friends should back off and let us do our job" I just made a beckoning move with my hand towards Tyfannii as Ana spoke, her voice lightly mocking.

"Don't look so unhappy man. The last rapper she was with ended up dead, at least this way we ended it before she did, permanently" Oak frowned turning to stare at Tyfannii who looked like she wasn't going to come of her own accord.

"What's this about baby?" She sat there, a scowl marring that beautiful face.

"Nothing, they've got everything mixed up" I smiled as I saw Oak and the others leaning away from her, like she was carrying something they didn't want to catch.

"I don't think so" I reached behind me and pulled out the cuffs. "You can come the easy way or the hard way, but either way you're coming with us. She looked round at the three of us and for a moment I saw through the mask, something in her eyes was cold and evil.

"Fuck you" I laughed as did Ana, while Sanchez just smiled; he had a tough guy image to live up to after all, I just shook my head; so many suspects all say the same thing, men and women.

"Oh girlie, you are so not my type" I held out my cuffs.

"Stacy Kebbler, AKA Tyfannii, you are under arrest for the murder of Patrick Jordan Carpenter and Christian Jeremiah" I glanced across at Ana. "Would you like to read Tyfannii her rights, not that she doesn't know them already after all, given her record" The look I got was pure venom, as was the tone in which she spoke.

"I want my lawyer"


	50. Chapter 50

**A/N **Standard disclaimers apply: I don't own these characters, their ownership resides with the legal rights holders, I'm just grateful for the opportunity to play with them

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**50 Home**

Maura's viewpoint

The click of the front door was almost unnoticeable in the late evening quiet, easily mistaken for ambient noise; unless you were keenly attuned to the passive sounds of the house you would probably not hear it; fortunately I was well aware of what it signified, I had been lying here unable to sleep properly until that sound and what it meant, Jane was home.

As I hadn't heard the garage door, I knew exactly what she'd done, parked on the drive to avoid making noise, almost certainly she had also doffed her boots before opening the door, all to avoid waking me, her casual thoughtfulness drawing an unconscious smile once more as I rolled over to face the door to await her arrival. I could hear a quiet greeting as she spoke to Bass; no doubt she was bending down to deliver a pat to his shell as she quite often did, for all the negative reaction Jane had shown on first encountering Bass, she had grown fond of him over the years, going so far as to describe him as the anti-Jo, where Jo was loud and hyper-kinetic, Bass was quiet and placid, a calming presence in our often frantic lives.

Our bedroom was dark, lit only by the city's ambient light reflecting back down from the clouds and through the windows, enough for me to see clearly as my eyes had adjusted to the available light, thus I easily saw Jane, clad only in bra and boy shorts, as soon as she appeared in the doorway. For all of her attempts to not wake me, she was drawn to our bed, we both knew we slept better together, no doubt she was hoping I'd barely rouse from my slumber as she joined me before I settled back to sleep in her arms. Tonight however I'd been unsettled, not able to sink into a deep sleep, instead I'd slept fitfully, waking at every noise, each time hoping it was her arriving home. I watched as she made her way carefully across the room towards the bed, before I chose to put her out of her misery.

"Welcome home darling" I could see the sudden tensing of her facial muscles, then her body slumping slightly.

"Aw damn, did I wake you? I'm sorry baby" I shook my head, anxious to reassure her.

"Not at all, I found myself missing your presence and unable to sleep without you here" She nodded as she slipped onto the bed.

"Sorry about that, we arrested Tyfannii but she immediately lawyered up and we've spent the night trying to crack her" Knowing what I wanted she settled onto her back, allowing me to move over to snuggle up to her, reaching up for a kiss as her arms automatically came round to encircle me; I sighed, this was the feeling of home I'd unconsciously craved, that I needed to allow me to relax and sleep. We kissed for a moment, slow and sweet before I sank back, letting my head come to rest on her shoulder, settling into the soft warm skin covering the firm musculature beneath that is all Jane, drawing comfort from the familiarity as one of her hands slid under my silk pyjama top and gently smoothed up and down my back over and over, I smiled, the repetitive movement of her hand on my skin was both calming and intimate.

"Were you successful in linking her to the victim's death?" I felt her head shake.

"Everything we've got's circumstantial so far, but Tao managed to pull up her something interesting once we got access to Carpenter's financials, looks like our friend Tyf went on a shopping binge the day before Carpenter and Jeremiah died, everything got put on Carpenter's account where it'd automatically get paid, so it didn't turn up on her credit history"

"What sort of shopping?" I received a small kiss to the temple before she continued.

"The sort of thing you'd love baby, not one, not two, but three Louis Vuitton overnight bags, plus bags, purses and clutches from Prada, Balenciaga, Chanel, Hermes, YSL, Burberry, you name the luxury brand and she'd bought it, well over two hundred thousand worth of stuff in a single day" I thought that over for a moment.

"Even I would consider that excessive, after all, you would need to be sure that whatever items you were buying matched or complimented the items already in your collection, that takes time and research, one day hardly seems enough" Jane chuckled lightly.

"She had them put into her car, then transported them to a storage facility we tracked down out near Carpenter's place. When you add it all together she took him to the cleaners, I mean when you combine it with the stuff she had in the safety deposit box there's at least the better part of a million dollars in items, plus almost half a million in cash"

"I was not aware that the urban and hip-hop music profession was quite so lucrative" I felt her shrug.

"Me neither" I smiled.

"Either Jane, the word is either" She pulled me a little closer; I could hear the warmth and affection in her voice.

"Whatever, you know what I mean" I pursed my lips, imaging my English grammar tutor's disapproval of that particular sentence structure, then mentally shrugged, this was Jane after all, the usual rules don't apply when it comes to her.

"Regrettably, I do" We were quiet for a second, before I prompted her to continue. "Based on what you had learned, it seems there was definite premeditation involved?"

"Hell yeah, she'd been stealing him blind almost since they got together. We think he'd woken up to that and decided to end it with her. One guy Provenza spoke to, Carpenter's producer, said they'd discussed it over drinks at Carpenter's mansion, apparently Carpenter was planning to end it, wanted someone who wanted to be with him for him, not his money" I nodded carefully, aware that our financial disparity was still an uncomfortable subject for Jane.

"That is completly understandible, we all seek someone who loves us as we are, not for what we may be worth" I reflected for a second on that thought, there was something a little personal in that statement, one that hopefully Jane hadn't caught. Jane's nod was easily felt as her chin brushed my hair.

"Yeah, according to this producer guy Carpenter wasn't all that happy with Tyfannii, in fact he told him that he was going to cut her off, kick her out with the same stuff she'd arrived with, basically nothing" I thought that over for a moment.

"Could he do that legally" Jane's voice was uncertain.

"Maybe, maybe not"

"I doubt that our suspect would have taken that well. From what you have told me her circumstances were much different when she first met our victim, she had much to lose if he had carried through on his promise"

"Yep, she could have lost it all. Provenza asked if it was possible that Tyfannii might have heard that discussion and he did say she was in the house, so it's possible"

"Whilst I am not a detective, that sounds like motivation to me"

"Yeah, well I am a detective and it sure sounds like it to me too so I sat down with Andrea Hobbs and asked her about just that. She said it would have ended up before a judge if he'd kicked her out with nothing, maybe she'd win in court, maybe not but, as Andrea pointed out, as the former girlfriend of a now deceased boyfriend, she gets to keep all the stuff he gave her, all the personal items like clothing, cosmetics, perfumes, accessories, jewelry, it all gets listed as personal gifts and she gets to keep it"

"I take it that would include the results of her recent spending spree" Jane nodded.

"Dead right, Andrea said they all came under the category of personal items so she'd be able to hang on to them, though why she needed so many of them I don't know, I mean how many Prada bags does one woman need" I unconsciously smiled at Jane's teasing statement.

"I believe you are asking the wrong woman Jane, given your oft-voiced complaints about my own shopping habits" I levered my head up to see her brown eyes watching me, glittering in the reflected light, full of amusement as she spoke, her voice full of the teasing that is so much a part of us.

"Well it's true, how many does a single woman need" I shrugged.

"I would hesitate to categorise myself as a single woman Jane"

"Good point" I nodded and smiled as I spoke.

"I would also say that the number of items required would depend on what she was buying" Jane nodded slowly.

"Yeah, it was weird, she was buying the same thing in different shops" I suddenly realised what Jane was saying and sat up, startling Jane as I did.

"Correct me if I have misunderstood you but are you stating that the suspect bought multiple examples of the same item, or just the same general type of item?" Jane looked up at me, her brow wrinkling as she went to follow my reasoning.

"The same exact item, two or three of each" I nodded slowly, thinking it through before looking up and asking the question.

"Can you recall any of the items she bought, the exact items if you could recall them" Jane looked at me then sat up, frowning in thought.

"Oh-kay... I remember she bought three of those Louis Vuitton travelling bag things, they were called the keep all?" I nodded.

"The Vuitton Keepall Bandouliere overnight bag, really a classic bag in their range, I honestly cannot fault her taste in luxury items no matter her crimes. Can you remember anything else?" Jane, whose lips had shifted to a smile at my words, nodded.

"There was a bag called the Kelly bag, she bought two of those, one each from two different shops" I nodded.

"Obviously to get around the restrictions Hermes has in place to limit the number of such items an individual can purchase in a year" I thought about it for a moment. "They are thus collectible and attract high prices, on the order of eight to ten thousand dollars or more, depending on the specific model" Jane scratched her chin for a moment before her hand fell into her lap.

"She also bought two Birkin bags the same way" I sighed.

"The Hermes Birkin bag, equally a classic and equally limited in availability, attracting a similar, if not larger price tag" I shook my head as I suddenly realised what she had been doing. "Were her other purchases similar luxury-branded products"

"Yeah, she bought something called a lady's bag by Dior" She shrugged. "I thought they were all ladies bags, who the hell would want one in python skin though?" I nodded.

"The Dior lady Bag in Python is a classic Jane, it retails for well in excess of ten thousand dollars when available and is highly desirable amongst fashionable women" She looked at me as her eyebrows rose.

"Over ten thousand dollars, that's mad" She glanced up at me. "Let me guess, you have one don't you?" I shook my head.

"I dislike the practice of obtaining skins from species that are often found on endangered species lists, on principle I don't own items that may sustain the lamentable trade in exotic animals fur and skin" She tilted her head to regard me.

"What about those crocodile skin heels you wore a few months back?"

"They come from farmed animals Jane, I am quite particular and do my research before I make my purchases, as you should well know" She flashed me a quick smile.

"Of course you do, I'd expect nothing else" She sobered and looked at me with renewed intensity. "So these bags are worth a lot?" I nodded carefully as I thought it through.

"That would be an understatement Jane, if the suspect bought so many of these items I would theorise that her intention would be to resell them, there is a very active buyer's market for such items, particularly the limited availability items. Given they would not have been used and would remain in their original packaging, they would attract significant prices on the collector's market, as much as eighty per cent of the new price, perhaps more" Jane nodded.

"So if we assume she sold all the bags she bought she'd make some real money" I nodded.

"Without a catalogue in front of me I would be working from imprecise memory, that said however the bags you listed would have a new price of well over fifty thousand dollars new, even presuming for the sake of argument a twenty per cent discount on the collector's market, our suspect would a realise a profit of at least forty thousand dollars, very possibly more" Jane nodded slowly.

"That qualifies as motive in my book" She considered it for a moment then shrugged. "I really should call Brenda and let her know this stuff, she might be able to leverage it in her interrogation, but it's late and it can wait till the morning, Tyfannii's not going anywhere in a hurry" She lowered herself back to the bed and lifted her arm, silently inviting me back to our previous position, which I accepted with alacrity. We lay there a moment as her hand resumed it's rhythmic, reassuring passes up and down my back. Finally she spoke. "Why weren't you sleeping" I half-shrugged from where I lay against her.

"I missed you, so with nothing to distract me my mind refused to settle. In fact I was about to get up to watch something on television, I was hoping that a little light entertainment would perhaps settle me enough to sleep" I felt Jane's nod.

"That sounds like a good idea, to be honest my head's still kinda full of the case and Brenda's interrogation and it's gonna be a while before I can sleep" I nodded then looked up as a thought struck me.

"Did you have something to eat for dinner" I saw the look on her face even before she went to speak. "Jane! What have I told you about skipping meals?" She looked sheepish in the face of my scolding.

"It wasn't deliberate, we dragged Tyfannii in and pretty much immediately got her into interrogation room 1, we didn't really have time to eat" I frowned as I deciphered her words, then looked up I to her eyes.

"Who exactly was 'we' Jane?" She immediately looked uncomfortable but in the face of my silence and unwavering stare she looked away. Never let it be said that I haven't watched her interrogating suspects without learning something, though I am sure Jane would protest me using the same tactics on her.

"It was just Brenda, Ana and me" I sighed, this again.

"It is 'Brenda, Ana and I' Jane, more importantly however the three of you know better than to skip meals, I have no doubt that Sharon and Natalie will be unimpressed to learn that their partners have also failed to eat"

"Aw c'mon Maura, we don't need to bring them into it, maybe if I have something now it'll make up for it, wadda you say?" Recognising Jane's offer as the blatent distraction it was I nodded.

"It is late so something light would be appropriate, but you do need to eat regularly, particularly if you are to maintain both your health and your training reigime" I sighed again. "Let us move this discussion to the kitchen while I make up something nutritious" I saw the slightly hopeful smile appear on Jane's lips. "Yes? Is there something you would like?" Before she spoke I held up a hand in a 'stop' gesture. "Something healthy" Seeing the smile falter at my words, I inwardly congratulated myself; I know Jane all too well. She paused for a moment then spoke, her voice somewhat hopeful.

"Well, I suppose, if I have to have something healthy, how about that sweet chilli chicken recipie you got from Sharon, that's delicious" I nodded, that dish was both nutricious and tasty and had rapidly become one of Jane's favourites.

"Very well, I can do that" She smiled in relief, probably relieved I hadn't insisted on a Kale salad or a soy burger. "Perhaps we might watch some television afterwards until we're ready to come back to bed" She pulled a face thinking about it.

"What do you want to watch?" She waggled a finger at me. "And given I'm eating a salad with no argument that means no documentaries on a Friday night"

"In that case the same stipulation should apply to you, thus no sport tonight" She grimaced then, to use one of her preferred expressions, caved. She sighed deeply.

"Fine, whatever, what do you wanna watch then?"

"How about something we might both enjoy, something light?" The beautiful smile that appeared was like the first rays of sunshine at dawn.

""We haven't watched the latest episode of Arrow yet" I pretended to consider it, even though we both enjoy the show, albeit for different reasons.

"Very well, though what you see in that show I have no idea" She stepped up and reached for my hand to guide me up from the bed.

"I like Felicity" She shrugged. "So I have a weakness for gorgeous genius blondes in fabulous dresses, sue me" I smiled as she guided me to my feet and led our way to the door.

"I must admit that the character does wear some delightful evening dresses, although I am not sure I would wear some of her work wear, it's perhaps a little too inappropriate for the role I undertake" She just smiled back at me as we made our way down the hall. ""Besides, does that make you my Oliver Queen?" Jane pretended to ponder my question then shook her head.

"Nah, I don't have the muscles for that, plus I can't pull off that Salmon ladder stuff" I felt like pointing out that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her muscle development, that I absolutely adored the gym-honed physique she now possessed and enjoyed the feel of her enhanced musculature under my hands and tongue, instead however I smiled back at her as she settled on the couch and I moved onto the kitchen as she reached for the remote, even as I called back to her.

"Does that make you the Black Canary then?" I got another blinding grin as she settled back, turning on the television with the sound muted as she spoke and turning to look at me over the back of the couch as she did.

"I dunno, do you think I could rock the Canary outfit?" I smiled as I contemplated Jane dressed in the tight black leather of the Black Canary's costume, the image was a decidedly pleasing one. I hummed in agreement as I moved round the kitchen gathering the ingredients.

"I should perhaps reexamine the scenes featuring both Black Canary's to determine which of the two costumes would better suit you, either Sara's or Laurel's" She nodded carefully even as she smiled.

"And what would you do once you'd decided which one was better suited?" I smiled back at her.

"Perhaps it would make an appropriate Halloween costume" I saw her nod as she considered my spur of the moment suggestion, then spoke.

"Maybe, but only if you go as Felicity, I have just the dress in mind for you, plus you'd rock a pair of glasses" I chuckled as I placed some chicken in the microwave to defrost.

"Perhaps I might borrow a pair of Alex's" I got a finger waved at me.

"Now you're just being a tease" I smiled at her tone then chuckled as a thought hit me.

"We should look at hosting a costume party, perhaps for Halloween, we have not attended one of those in a very long time" Jane nodded.

"I know exactly what Nat and Ana will come as" I looked up from preparing the cherry tomatoes.

"Oh?" She nodded.

"Yeah, they both like that Once upon a Time show" I nodded, indeed they did. "Well imagine Nat as the Sherriff and Ana as Regina the Evil Queen, complete in full evil queen regalia, god knows she's got the boobs for it" I nodded, Anastasia did indeed have the body for it, in the figure-enhancing garb of the evil queen, all corsets and cleavage and leather she would look sensational. Of course Natalie, being Natalie, would go all out as Sherriff Swan, the red leather jacket, skin tight jeans and boots would make her look wonderful, though knowing her she would vamp it up, stiletto boots rather than Emma Swan's practical flat heels, with a low cut white top and not a panty line in sight. Oh yes, Natalie would indeed make it work.

"They would look fabulous I am sure, but I wonder who Sharon and Brenda would come dressed as?"

"I'm pretty sure that whatever they come as, none of them would look as good as you" I looked over at Jane, expecting to see her teasing, only to see she was quite serious, leaving me touched.

"Why thank you darling, I will have to do everything possible to ensure that I live up to your expectations" Jane looked back at me and smiled, before she spoke, her voice low.

"You don't have to try hard, you do that every day" I smiled at her words, even as I heard the microwave signal the chicken was defrosted. I looked up at her and let my smile widen as I withdrew the chicken.

"Food first Jane, other things afterwards" Her voice was a low growl.

"You're no fun" I let my smile widen at her words.

"That is most definitely not what you said two nights ago as I recall" Jane's voice changed from a growl to something a little less sexy and a bit more aggravated.

"Ok, well maybe you're no fun in the kitchen" My smile grew even further.

"I also recall that was not what you said several weeks ago when you decided you did not, to use your expression, want to wait till dinner to eat" I tipped my head to regard her, seeing her smile change to a smirk. "In fact I seem to recall you telling me that was the most fun you had ever had in this kitchen"

OK, fine, hurry up and feed me, then we can feed my other appetite"

"Are you sure you are not tired Jane?" She looked back at me and shook her head, her voice a little husky.

"For you, never" She let her eyes roam over me. "Do we have any of that chocolate sauce left?" She grinned. "I've just decided what I want for afters" Her eyes and tone made her intentions very clear.

I nodded, even as my body started humming. I must admit I had never made a salad quite as fast as that one, Jane however seemed to have no complaints, even as she dragged me back to bed for, in her words, desert.


	51. Chapter 51

**A/N **Welcome to the second half of this story, I'm sure that you're wondering where this story is going (gives off an evil laugh), don't worry, the pieces are all falling into place and things start to move quite a bit faster in this half. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**51 Armoured Car Heist**

Brenda's viewpoint

The scene out of my car window was like something from a bad 80's action movie, a wrecked vehicle illuminated in flashes of red and blue; a sight not improved by getting out of the car and walking closer, flashing my badge at the uniformed officer there and ducking under the yellow tape.

The place was a mess, a light industrial area with an armoured truck sitting wrecked in the centre of the road. The cabin had been completely gutted by an explosion and subsequent fire, while one side of the back of the truck was peeled back like light aluminium.

David looked at the mess and whistled at the sight, I could understand where he was coming from, but Deputy Chief's aren't supposed to whistle, so I just smothered a smile and flicked a glance at him.

"Let's be on with it shall we Sergeant Gabriel?" He looked at me and nodded.

"Sure thing Chief" I walked on a short distance closer to see my Lieutenant's, Provenza, Flynn and Tao, standing there waiting for me.

"Good morning gentlemen" I got a round of greetings in return. "What pray tell transpired here so early this fine morning?" Provenza took the lead as I'd expected, flipping pages in his notebook.

"About 6.25 this morning this truck was on its way back to the depot after an overnight cash collection run, 711s, convenience stores, gas stations, that sort of thing, when it was ambushed here" Andy Flynn nodded.

"Looks like someone hit it with an anti-tank rocket, god knows the truck's a wreck" He was right, it looked like the only place this one was going was the scrapheap. The front of the truck had been totalled, what the explosion hadn't destroyed the resulting fire had. I nodded as I started walking towards the vehicle, Provenza keeping pace with me as he kept speaking.

"We don't know exactly how much they had on board when it hit, but a quick call to the company said on the order of two hundred to two fifty thousand dollars" I raised my eyebrows before peering into the back of the truck, seeing torn and burnt bills lying on the floor of the truck, together with a man in what looked like a guard's uniform.

"How many people were aboard Lieutenant?"

"Three Chief" It was Flynn. "I've got the company sending over their names and files for us" I nodded and looked around for the rest of the team.

"Were there any witnesses?" Andy pulled the ever present toothpick out of his mouth as he gestured around us.

"Rizzoli and Sanchez are doing a canvass for anyone who might have seen anything or any cameras covering the scene" He shrugged. "It's kinda early for too many people to have been about" I frowned.

"I suppose we might get lucky, no harm in trying I guess" Flynn gestured past me out beyond the scene, his voice laden with disdain.

"Speaking of cameras, I see the ladies and gentlemen of the fourth estate have deigned to join us this morning" I glanced over my shoulder to see at least two news crews had set up, using the wrecked truck as a backdrop as the on-air talent recorded footage. I frowned and turned back to the others.

"Fortunately they are not our concern, for which I am quite grateful" I looked around. "I wonder where Ms Dearing is, it's not normally like her to be late" Provenza cleared his throat.

"Probably almost here, she would have stopped to pick up Romanov" At my raised eyebrow he shrugged. "It looks like it might have been a military weapon, so her army background might help" I nodded slowly; it was true, Ana's insights from her military service had been invaluable on last year's sniper case and might well prove the same here.

"An excellent idea Lieutenant, thank you so much" We looked round at the sound of heels on asphalt to see Maura walking our way.

"And a good morning to you Doctor" She smiled warmly, looking as stylish as usual, a chic pale yellow dress that emphasised her curves, tailored white blazer and matching strappy heels, her medical bag in hand, she was a bright splash of colour in the early morning.

"Good morning Chief, detectives" There were greetings and smiles all round, I'd noticed my squad had grown very fond of Maura and not just because she was Jane's partner, they liked her for the person she was. Her skills and dedication, her intellect and her lovely warm personality were all a welcome visitor, be it to a crime scene, the squad room or drinks at O'Malley's, I nodded towards the vehicle.

"We believe three victims, two in the front, one in the back, though I don't know if you'll get much from the ones up front" She nodded slowly as her eyes ran over the truck, then once more, quick and decisive.

"Then I had best get started. If you will excuse me..." I nodded and received a smile in return before she stepped past us and towards the truck, joined by two of her team as she started giving directions. Knowing things were in her good hands I turned back to my squad.

We kicked around ideas for a minute or two before I noticed movement behind Flynn, glancing across to see Natalie and Anastasia showing their I.D. as they passed under the yellow tape. I noticed Natalie had managed to convince Ana to forego her usual pants suit, instead she was wearing a tailored navy blue skirt suit and jacket over a crisp white blouse, the tailoring emphasising her hourglass silhuette. The three inch black pumps weren't her normal wear either; like Jane she was partial to boots so Natalie must have been extra-persuasive this morning. I suppressed a smirk as I wondered just what she'd promised her to dress like that, obviously something well worth it.

Natalie looked equally nice, a form-fitting sky blue peplum dress that drew attention to her figure, black four inch heels adding to her height, they walked towards us with their strides unconsciously matched, ignoring the appraising looks of the uniformed officers standing around as they smiled at our group.

Seeing them like that reminded me that while that they looked good individually, they looked even better together, for a moment I wondered if the same was true of Sharon and me, we weren't as... I dunno, sympatico as these two, but then they'd been together for several years before we met them. We'd get there; or at least I hoped we would. Discarding the irrelevant thoughts I smiled as they joined us, exchanging pleasantries before getting down to business.

"It looks like a military weapon may have been used Agent Romanov. I surely can't imagine anything else doing that" Ana nodded once as she took in the truck then looked back at me. "We would appreciate your assistance in trying to work out what happened here" She nodded once more.

"Not a drama Chief, if you'll excuse me for a moment?" I nodded, to see her turn and walk towards the truck, moving to circle the wreck, pausing to look back over her shoulder, then down at the ground, looking for tyre tracks maybe. I turned to see Natalie looking at her with a small fond smile before she shook her head and looked back to me, realising I was watching her, turning her widening smile on me.

"Is there anything in particular you need me to mention to the media Chief?" I thought for a moment.

"Just the usual, witnesses, leads, that sort of thing" She nodded slowly. "Oh, if you can avoid mentioning anything about rockets and military weapons…" I let my voice trail off but Natalie smiled.

"Will do Chief" She looked round and then smiled at Lieutenant Flynn. "Andy, can I ask you a favour, can you hang onto my bag for a moment?" He smiled.

"Sure" Natalie handed over her black leather handbag, together with a warm smile.

"Thanks Andy" She glanced at the rest of us and headed off towards the media, nodding as she passed Ana who was already on her way back to us, getting a smile in return. Stopping in front of us Ana looked across at me and spoke.

"They made a hell of a mess of the truck, pretty much overkill really" I frowned at her words and the potential implications of someone running around with military weapons and no regrets about using them on civilian targets.

"Any thoughts on the weapon used Agent Romanov?" Ana smiled and nodded once, obviously unfazed at being put on the spot.

"I have a few ideas Chief, but I'll need some help" I raised an eyebrow.

"What do you need?" She glanced around.

"One of your team and a few uniformed officers to help out" I nodded and looked around, catching David's eye.

"Sergeant Gabriel, would you be kind enough to rustle up a few officers and assist Agent Romanov" His head bobbed as he smiled.

"Sure thing Chief" They headed past us back up the road away from the scene, collecting a few uniforms as they went, while I turned back to the others, noting Natalie was already standing in front of the camera's, several microphones thrust in front of her, calmly answering questions and remaining unfazed by it all, her hair a golden halo around her in the bright wash of the camera lights. I admired her for her ability to stand calm in front of the media, I loathed them with a passion, never comfortable with them; they were always prying, always trying to trip you up and make you look bad. She could have them with my gratitude. Dismissing them to Natalie's capable hands I turned back to the team.

"Lieutenant Flynn. Can you please talk to the company…" I glanced at the name on the side of the truck, noting Maura was already inside the back of the truck, her team having already secured a ladder to access the interior. "…Secure Transit, and find out if this was a regular scheduled run, if it was the same customers each night or if it changed?" He nodded. "Also see if it was the same route along this street each night" He nodded again as I shifted target.

"Lieutenant Tao, can you please pull traffic camera footage to track the truck once we get a route from the company, perhaps you may identify another vehicle following it" he nodded.

"Got it Chief" I turned to Provenza.

"Lieutenant Provenza, would you be so kind as to look into Secure Transit, see if they've been hit before, any other issues they may have had in the past" he nodded, already taking notes. I looked up to see Jane approaching, though I had no idea where Julio was.

"Good morning Detective, any luck with witnesses?" Jane grimaced.

"Not many people around that early Chief; the few who were heard a boom, one or two came out to see what was happening but no one was going to come too close when they saw guys with guns." She frowned. "They backed off and called 911" I ground my teeth in mild frustration, their actions completely understandable but not all that helpful. Jane reached into her jacket's inside pocket and retrieved her notebook, flipping it open and glancing down at her notes.

"One witness spotted a car used by the attackers, an old OJ-mobile, a white Chevy Bronco" She glanced up. "No licence plate I'm afraid" I nodded; it was something though, holding up my hand to interrupt while I spoke to Tao.

"Lieutenant Tao, can you please also keep an eye out for the Bronco while checking traffic footage" he nodded, making notes as I turned back to Jane. "Sorry detective, please go on"

"I got three witnesses, two of whom saw a total of four suspects, all armed, some with pistols, at least one with an assault rifle, probably one of those AK47 knock-offs that're hitting the streets, he described the rifle as having a large, curved magazine" I nodded, there had been an influx of cheap Chinese copies of the venerable Russian assault rifle flooding the street gangs, Commander Reynolds had mentioned at the last Senior Officers Meeting that they were causing the Gang Task Force no end of grief. Jane meanwhile was continuing. "Suspects were described as being male, African American in appearance, no distinguishing tattoos or obvious gang colours…" She shrugged. "It was dark and the witnesses weren't going to get too close to people with guns" She looked up from her notes. "One witness reported a muffled gun shot from near the van" I noticed Jane was looking past me, her eyebrows rising. "What the hell..."

I turned, to see Anastasia walking back towards us, accompanied by David, a green tube held in her hands.

"Found it Chief" She held her gloved hands out, displaying the green tube. "A M136 AT4 recoilless rocket launcher, designed to take out vehicles or buildings" Mike Tao leaned forward.

"Kinda like a modern-day bazooka?" Ana nodded at his words, turning the tube in her hands, the better for our inspection.

"Pretty much, it's a one shot, disposable; light enough that each person in a squad can carry one to bulk up the squad's firepower, basically it gives the infantry a quick anti-armour or anti-building weapon" She stopped to look around to see we were following her as I nodded for her to continue. "It's a one-shot weapon, use it and then throw it away. So I went to the most likely location based on where the truck was hit, then I went looking for where it might have been tossed. From there it was a case of checking the closest dumpsters" She smiled widely. "Well David was kind enough to assign officers for that"

I smiled in response, rank has its privileges, including delegating the dirty jobs like dumpster diving. David leaned forward, indicating one point on the other side of the tube.

"There's a serial number on the side" Ana moved the tube in her hands, turning it to show a small metal plate.

"Yeah, we should be able to track down where this one was from pretty quickly" She looked around. "Can we get a bag to put this in?" The rocket launcher was quickly secured safely inside an oversized evidence bag sourced from Maura's team, soon to make its way back to the lab for fingerprinting. As we did Maura rejoined us.

"Both males in the front of the vehicle appeared to have died from the explosion, almost certainly they did not live long enough for the fire to kill them" I nodded, probably a blessing, burning to death was a horrible way to go. "The guard in the back is a different story" Maura frowned. "He was shot by a medium calibre firearm to the back of the head" She paused as we all waited. Maura really didn't like speculating but had become a little more forthcoming when needed. I noted Jane nodding in encouragement, and she wasn't the only one, once again I noticed how gentle my squad were with her.

"Given the lack of major blast or burn damage to the body, it is possible the victim was simply knocked unconscious and was shot by the assailants while he lay there" She gave a weak smile. "Of course I will not be able to say more until I have been able to complete a full examination back at the lab" I nodded, seeing the others nod as well as Julio joined us. He politely waited until he was sure Maura had finished before speaking.

"Sorry for the delay Chief. A sweep of the local buildings only found one camera that might have caught the attack. I'm trying to track down the owner to get the footage" I nodded.

"Good work everyone. Detective Rizzoli, could you take charge of getting the witness statements…" Jane nodded. "Detective Sanchez, please follow up on that video" Another nod. "Also can you have a talk with the Gang Task Force people and see if they might have any leads on any gangs that might have this kind of firepower" He nodded once again as I turned to another victim.

"Lieutenant Flynn, I'm really sorry to ask you to do this but would you be so kind as to talk to Robbery / Homicide about this, if they might have any useful intel or leads…" I nodded at his pained expression. "I know, I know, I don't expect much either, let alone cooperation but it's something we have to try" He too nodded. Turning I saw Natalie returning, she'd obviously finished with the media. As she approached I finished tasking the rest of the team before looking across at her.

"And how were the media Natalie?" She shrugged and smiled, a little ruefully as she retrieved her bag from Andy.

"Thanks Andy. Not so good I'm afraid Chief. One of the cameramen had been in Iraq and recognised the damage, he told his reporter and he asked the question. I tried to duck it but both networks now think a military weapon was used" She spread her hands. "Sorry, I tried to play it down but…" I frowned, it was probably likely to get out but I would have liked some more time before it had. Pope was going to have kittens about this; I could just see it now. I sighed once and then got back to work.

"No use crying over spilled milk I guess" I turned to her partner. "Agent Romanov, it looks like this is going to break a lot quicker than we hoped. Can I ask you to take personal charge of the investigation into this weapon's provenance, we need to where it came from, how it got onto the streets and how many more might be out there" She nodded decisively.

"I'll get started immediately" I nodded.

"Let me know if you need any help" I looked around the group, taking everyone in. "We need to shut this down quickly people, it might have been overkill on an armoured truck, god knows what they'll try next time" I saw agreement on everyone's faces; they all knew what was at stake. "Lets move people, times a'waisting"

The group broke up, heading off in different directions, leaving me standing there alone for a moment, as I thought about how bad this could get. Whoever did this might only have had one rocket, but that wasn't likely, my life couldn't ever be that simple. Sighing I turned, looking for David, I needed to get back and brief Pope, I could already feel a headache coming on, a bad one.

Misery loves company and I was about to share.


	52. Chapter 52

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**52 Chasing down the runners**

Anastasia's viewpoint

I slowly hung up the phone, sat back in my chair and massaged my eyes, it was almost midday and I had a pounding headache already. I'd spent much of yesterday and this morning following up the serial number on that M136, working my way through the bureaucracies of both the FBI and the Department of Defence by phone and email. The Bureau could be bad but the DoD was much worse; four armed services, the Coast Guard (who didn't really count as a real armed service in my book, they spent most of their time helping people, not blowing things up), a massive civilian bureaucracy and external contractors embedded at every level of the system made a mockery of any idea of responsiveness. Like most current and former serving members I'd come to the conclusion the military got things done in spite of its organisation, not because of it.

I'd finally managed to get onto someone at the Pentagon who not only knew what they were doing, but was willing to help, they'd searched the military's vast and complex computer supply and inventory system and located the serial number as one that had been allocated to a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Training Center in Huntsville Alabama. My follow up calls to the unit had been stonewalled by some admin or stores clerk who told me to go through the 'proper channels' which in her mind that meant through the Marine Corps hierarchy in Washington, which could take days, weeks or even months. I didn't have time to submit everything in triplicate and then wait for some pencil pusher to get off their well-cushioned ass so I decided to try another approach, contacting the local office of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service in Birmingham to see if they could help me. NCIS were tasked with investigating crimes within the Navy and Marine Corps; this was right up their alley so they should be able to get things moving.

Instead that had turned into its own ongoing exercise in frustration as well, I'd been bumped up the chain from person to person, finally being put through to the boss of the office, a Marine Corps Major named Darren Troy but rather than being helpful he'd been worse than useless, I recognised administrative stonewalling when I saw it and Troy was piling stones as fast as he could. I glanced up at the clock as I swalloed two more pain pills and grimaced, it was 11.42, I was scheduled to give Brenda an update at noon and wasn't looking forward to telling her I'd hit a bureaucratic wall.

Two hours later Jane and I were on our way out to LAX to catch a flight to Birmingham, Brenda had looked at me, her mouth doing that twisting thing of hers when she was pissed before she'd called Jane in and told us both to get our things together to head down to Alabama for a couple of days to chase up the weapons in person. She'd been quite adamant.

"Don't take no for an answer, we need that information, so knock on doors till you get it" She'd looked between both of us, her voice lowering. "And if knocking's not working for you then kick them in"

An uncomfortable Delta flight later, given the LAPD flies coach, we'd arrived in Atlanta, the temperature was warm, in the high 70's and it was raining. A snatch of a barely remembered song ran though my head, something about '_touched down in the middle of the delta blues, in the middle of the pouring rain_'. I shook my head and retrieved my bag from the carousel and joined Jane of the walk to the rental desk, ten minutes later and we were out in the traffic, making our way north to join onto I20, turning west.

We could have connected to a regional shuttle flight but Jane and I had agreed we didn't want to sit around in Atlanta for over an hour waiting for a connection, instead we'd decided we'd drive the two and a bit hours to Birmingham. The drive passed relatively painlessly, we'd tossed to see who drove with Jane winning, meaning I got to play navigator which meant I got to do nothing for most of the middle of the trip, only really needed to get us on and off the interstate at each end. The trip passed quickly, we shot the breeze, told old war stories, talked sports, had a long and involved argument over which was more awesome, DC or Marvel, before we agreed to disagree and arrived at our hotel early in the evening.

The LAPD travel person had wanted to book us in some ratty two star place but Jane and I'd exchanged a conversation in a single glance and both agreed to pay for our own hotel, the department could pay us the per diem and we'd cover the rest. We were both familiar with the sort of places the government put their people up in, frankly neither of us wanted to deal with the hassle, better to pay for some place nice, so we'd ended up in the Hyatt Regency, it was a bit convention-y but it was very clean, the bed was comfy and it was one less thing to have to worry about while we were here. It turned out the place was hosting a big convention of accountants with a formal dinner taking place in the restaurant, booking it out, so, the receptionist recommended the Hot and Hot Fish Club a few blocks away. It turned out to be a little pricy but the pan-seared Yellowfin Tuna was nice, while Jane sang the praises of the Border Springs Lamb. Matched with a local beer, Bell's Hopslam, which lived up to its name, it was a good meal but by the time we'd finished it was well after 9.30 local so we headed back to the motel, I rang Nat and we chatted for a while, apparently she was staying over at Maura's tonight, a spur of the moment thing thanks to our trip. They were spending the evening discussing weddings so at least they'd managed to get something productive out of the day, which is more than I had.

Nat mentioned that Jane had called Maura around the same time as I rang her, hardly a surprise, both of us needing to touch base with our partner, we were missing them already. I tried not to spend too much time away from Nat and I knew Jane felt the same way about Maura, I may have just arrived but I was already looking forward to getting home.

Finally getting off the phone, I got changed and made my way up to the gym, not surprised to find Jane already there. I could see she was being eyed up by a few guys working out but she was ignoring them, even as I could tell at least two guys were working themselves up to wander over and try and chat her up. Smirking to myself, I walked over to where she was limbering up; even in her shorts and tee she looked good so I could hardly blame them. We stretched in silence for a couple of minutes before moving into the centre of the room, it was the largest open space available, giving us enough room to spar. Without protective gear we couldn't go for our usual full-on combat workout, instead working on throws for a while. I'd noticed some of the guys watching us both and caught Jane's eye, she'd seen it too, giving me a quick smirk before moving on to the bag they had hanging in one corner, we took turns holding it while the other practiced kicks and strikes, it felt good to let loose after a day of frustrations, the feel of connecting with the bag was satisfyingly cathartic, something Jane obviously agreed with, given how hard she was driving her kicks into the bag. Fifteen minutes later we wrapped up, to notice our audience was still there but too obviously intimidated to say or do anything. Jane caught my eye and grinned, one I returned, before we made our way out and down to our rooms for a hopefully decent nights sleep.

The following morning we had breakfast at the hotel, lingering over a coffee to allow time for the NCIS office to open, unlike real military units they worked office hours, so at 9.32 we walked into the local NCIS office to be greeted by a Navy seaman behind the counter. I noticed him eyeing us off but ignored him, I'd encountered enough sexist pigs just like him during my time in the military, instead flipping out my ID as I walked up to the desk.

"Special Agent Romanov from the Bureau" That got his attention, I held up my ID where he could see it and gestured to Jane. "This is my associate, Detective Rizzoli. We're here to see Major Troy" The squid's eyes widened in surprise even as his libido shrank alarmingly, the sight giving me a little dark pleasure.

"Is he expecting you?" I smiled slightly, seeing Jane's eyebrow twitch as I spoke.

"Very probably not" The sailor pulled a face then nodded, before indicating the back wall of the reception area.

"Um, right, please take a seat" He pointed to several plastic chairs then picked up a phone and rang someone. As we sat Jane smiled and spoke softly enough that only I could hear.

"I think you're enjoying this a little too much" I tried to look innocent but didn't think I was too successful.

"Who me, not at all, totally professional" Her smile changed to a full blown grin.

"Yeah right" Thirty seconds later we were being escorted through your typical open-plan office past Navy and Marine Corps uniforms to a glass-walled office where a thin guy, Caucasian with buzz cut dark hair in a spotless Marine uniform sat behind a desk. He remained seated until the seaman, who'd guided us in left, shutting the door behind him, then stood up and held his hand out.

"Major Darren Troy, US Marines, welcome to NCIS" I handled the intro's, seeing Troy's eyes narrow at Jane, no doubt wondering what a LA detective was doing in Alabama, he didn't waste time finding out.

"Agent Romanov, how can I help you?"

"I'm here to chase down a missing M136 AT4, listed as being in the Marine Corps armory at Huntsville" He frowned.

"Oh yeah, I remember now, you rang" I nodded as we sat.

"I did; what have you learned from your investigation?" He turned a bland look on me.

"What investigation?' I tried not to let my surprise show, though I don't think I was completely successful in keeping my irritation from showing.

"The one where you look into how a weapon supposedly in the armory up in Huntsville turned up being used in an armoured car robbery in Los Angeles" He shrugged.

"I contacted the unit this morning, they told me no weapons were missing" Jane leaned forward, her face tight.

"And you didn't think to check in person" He looked across at her and shrugged.

"I don't see the need" I frowned; he was being either evasive or stupid. "I'm afraid you've wasted your time coming down here" He smiled and stood. "Enjoy your flight back to LA" I glanced at Jane and leaned back in my chair, seeing her doing the same. Looking up at him I shook my head.

"I came to you as courtesy Major, I could go through the local Bureau Field Office here in Montgomery and make it official if you want" He settled back in his chair and shook his head.

"Like they'll listen to some out-of-towner, we don't particularly like people like you stomping in and demanding we drop everything to please you, plus I don't appreciate the aspersions you're casting about the people up in Huntsville" Jane frowned even harder.

"How do you explain that weapon turning up in LA then" He shrugged.

"Administrative error, someone in LA probably mixed up the serial number or something" I ground my teeth at his stupidity as I tried to keep reign on my temper.

"I personally transcribed that serial number directly off the makers plate and then checked the numbers before I spoke to the Pentagon, the serial numbers matched" His bland look never changed.

"Well, Huntsville confirmed that nothing's missing so you're wasting your time here, which means you're wasting mine" He gestured to his door. "I'll have you shown out" Jane flicked a look at me and leaned forward.

"So the fact that three people died in a robbery using that weapon means nothing to you" Troy was impervious, his voice dismissive.

"Look lady, I told you, it's not from Huntsville, maybe it's a black market job, someone's brought in a captured one lost in either Afghanistan or Iraq, but it's not from here" Jane's frown darkened.

"Then if you're so sure about that, why don't we take a run up there and confirm that" He shook his head, his irritation all too obvious.

"I told you, I spoke to them and they confirmed that nothing's missing, so as far as I'm concerned the matters closed" He frowned. "Besides, I have better things to do than drive an hour each way to make you happy. Now if you'll see your way out, I have some real work to do" I leaned forward.

"Major Troy, am I to understand that you are refusing to provide cooperation to our investigation?"

"Read it whichever way you want lady, I've conducted my investigation, I'm satisfied that your information's wrong and as far as I'm concerned, this matters closed" Jane stood up and looked at him.

"So you sit there, not giving a damn about three dead people, what do you do if there are more attacks, using weapons that might have come from Huntsville?"

"You're dealing in speculation Detective, until you have something more solid to go on, stop wasting my time" Jane went to say something when Troy interrupted. "Besides, you're out of your jurisdiction here, so I'm not authorized to help you" Jane's jaw got very tight as Troy continued on, an insolent tone creeping into his voice. "Even if I wanted to, which I don't" Jane's voice was an angry, low growl.

"I may not have jurisdiction, but she does, or are you going to blow her off as well because you can't be bothered actually doing your job?" He sat back and shrugged.

"The FBI has no jurisdiction over military matters, so I don't have to listen to either of you. You have a choice, walk out that door or I'll throw you out" I went to speak but Jane was faster, her voice low but confident.

"I'd like to see you try" Troy looked her over, seeing the complete lack of concern in Jane's eyes and sat back, smiling unpleasantly in an attempt to cover his unease.

"You can leave or I'll call the local police and have you arrested for trespassing" He suddenly smirked; it looked ugly on his pinched face. "I'm sure a pair of tight assed bitches like you would have no end of fun with the boys in the county lock-up, well at least they'd have fun" I'd been stamping down on my temper, but that last just about did it for me. I stood and took a step past Jane and towards him until only the desk separated us as I leaned forward, desperately stomping down on the desire to smash my fist down on his pristine desk.

"Major Troy, as a courtesy I will offer you one last chance. You can either provide us with the professional courtesy and support we have requested or I will take this one higher" He just smiled coldly, obviously thinking we couldn't touch him.

"Take it as far as you want lady, I doubt anyone's gonna listen to a pair of blow in bitches from Los Angeles. Now why don't you and your friend stop wasting my valuable time and prance on outa my office, the same way you came in" I nodded once, if he wanted to be a prick, well two could play that game.

"We'll be back Major, don't think this is over" He shrugged.

"Whatever" Jane stepped up next to me and glared at him as I could feel the anger radiating off her

"In the meantime maybe you could actually do something useful, like your goddamned job" Troy leaned back and waved his hand at us dismissively.

"Go back to LA lady" He indicated me with a wave of his hand. "And take your girlfriend here with you" I was about to speak when he pushed a button on his phone and spoke up.

"Sergeant Ostrow, please escort these two women off the premises" Jane and I exchanged a glance before I nodded once, jerkily, desperately trying to keep my rage in. I had a few options I hadn't planned to use, but he'd pissed me off and I was going to enjoy fucking him over in return. We turned and walked out, but we'd be back.


	53. Chapter 53

**Intersecting Lines book 2**

**53 Sweet Home Alabama **

Anastasia's viewpoint

"On the other hand, I can understand his point of view; he doesn't want anyone airing the Corps' dirty laundry in public"

We were sitting at a coffee several blocks from the NCIS office where I'd pulled over to let the tension out, I'd stared off into the distance for a minute or two while I entertained a few blood-soaked fantasies about exactly Troy and where exactly I'd shove my Glock before I pulled the trigger. It was probably a good thing we weren't carrying weapons this trip, what with the TSA hassles and all, but it did kinda limit my options to the non-lethal kind, unfortunately. Finally Jane laid her hand on my arm and dragged me back from the black abyss I was starting into, pointing out a coffee shop and stating that she didn't know about me but after that fiasco she needed to wash the bad taste out of her mouth.

God bless her, she was covering for me, even though I was the one who should have handled it better, after all, I was the liaison officer, I'm supposed to be the one who makes things happen, not fuck everything up in a pissing contest with a useless fool like Troy. Now here we were, chewing it over and considering our options, right royally pissed at that oxygen thief Troy. I wasn't the only one feeling it either, the annoyance Jane was feeling was writ large on her face, she isn't the kind to suffer in silence.

"That doesn't help us here though" I nodded agreeably, after all Jane was right.

"No, but I know someone who might" She looked up, scepticism obvious in her face and voice.

"Who, the Chief?" She snorted her skepticism. "I doubt he'd pay attention to her or anyone else who isn't military for that matter" I nodded, conceding the point then followed on with a thought I'd had.

"A guy I know, we served together in Iraq during the Abu Ghraib trials, he was a Marine back in Iraq; we were part of the investigative team that worked to put the prosecution case together"

"You think he'll help us" I nodded.

"Yeah, I think so. It's been a while, but he was always one of the good guys" Jane pulled a face for a moment before slowly nodding.

"If he's in a position to help us, I say go for it" I smiled.

"Senior Supervisory Special Agent for the NCIS up in DC, he's not the top guy, but he's respected by the brass up there" I shrugged. "Can't hurt" She toyed with her coffee cup for a moment then looked up and nodded.

"Like you say, it can't hurt to try" She shrugged. "Might as well give it a go" I nodded and pulled out my cell. It ended up taking three calls and about 15 minutes before I was finally connected through to Gibb's phone.

"Gibbs"

"Hey Leroy, put the coffee down and listen up" I smiled; I could practically hear the mug being put down, Gibbs' circulatory system ran on caffeine, not blood.

"Who the hell is this?" I grinned, happy to be able to mess with him a little.

"Forgot me already you miserable son of a bitch? I'm devastated; you told me we were drinking buddies for life, or was that just the booze talking?" I could see Jane listening in with all-too-obvious interest as the voice on the other end spoke, tentative as he dredged for a memory.

"Drinking buddies…" there was silence for about five seconds as I could practically hear his brain whirr before his voice came back, much stronger now. "Is that you Romanov?" I laughed, I knew it wouldn't take him long, he was sharp.

"Yeah, it's me Gibbs, how you been?" I could hear the curiosity in his voice.

"Not so bad, could be worse all things considered. What the hell are you up to these days?"

"Working for the Bureau, based in LA but I'm down in Alabama chasing an arms-running case and I need your help" I heard his attention sharpen up, Gibbs was as smart as they come.

"Oh, how so?"

"An M136 AT4 was used in an armoured car robbery in LA, three guards died during the robbery. We recovered the weapon and according to the Pentagon's supply weenies the serial number says it came from the Marine Corps Reserve Training Center down here in Huntsville. I spoke to them and got the brush off so I went through the local NCIS office, who stonewalled me. I'm down here now in Birmingham with my LAPD partner following up and the local NCIS office's senior investigator is being singularly…uncooperative" I saw Jane's lips twist at the word, obviously appreciating my restraint. The curiosity was obvious in Gibbs' voice.

"A CYA exercise or something else maybe?" I unconsciously frowned even though I was on the phone.

"Doubt he's covering his ass, more likely trying to keep the Corp's dirty laundry hidden" There was a few seconds pause as Gibbs thought it through.

"I see" There was another few seconds silence then... "Who's giving you grief?"

"A Marine Major named Darren Troy" Gibbs snorted, in either humour or disgust.

"Darren Troy, now there's a name I haven't heard of for a while. Alabama sounds like the sort of place they'd dump a cluster fuck like him" I smiled to myself, disgust it was then. "Let me guess, you'd like me to adjust his attitude a little to ensure he cooperates?"

"Yes please. And Gibbs…"

"Yeah?"

"He's gone out of his way to be a completely obnoxious and officious little prick, I mean really far out of his way" I could hear the comprehension in his voice when he spoke, his voice slow.

"So I should look at this as pleasure, not business" I smiled in relief at his words, I thought he'd help but I wasn't sure, it had been a while…

"Oh yes please" His smile was easily heard.

"Anything for you Romanov, I'll call you when I finish, what's your number?" I could hear the anticipation in his voice, Troy was in for an A-grade finest kind ass reaming. I passed my number on as Jane nodded slowly before he spoke again, curious. "So, you working smuggling for the Bureau now?"

"Nope, LAPD Liaison officer, not a bad gig"

"Liaison, that's a bit tame for you isn't it?" I could hear the surprise in his voice, but then reflected that I wasn't the self-destructive, risk-taking, take no prisoners cast-iron bitch I'd been back then, I was different now, and I had someone very special to thank for it.

"Oh, it has its moments" I could hear the change in his voice when he spoke, a little tentative.

"Hey Romanov, don't suppose I could tempt you back in uniform could I? I could find you a home here" I smiled, really appreciating the offer and what it meant, when he'd last seen me I was a mess, just before I quit the Army.

He'd sat me down in a bar, a dive really, run by the Blackwater guys in the Green Zone in the heart of Baghdad when the trials were finally over, we'd got the convictions we'd sought but it hadn't felt like a win. I'd been sitting in my single room where I'd been put for my own protection after some of the death threats from soldiers who didn't think prosecuting their buddies for war crimes was the patriotic thing to do, contemplating my future, well my lack of it really. Gibbs had dragged me out for a drink and we'd spent the rest of the evening working our way through several bottles of Johnny Walker Black and Red, he'd seen first hand what that trial had done to me, we'd talked it through and he'd understood and agreed with my reasons, which was only one of the many reasons why I respected him so much.

It had also helped that he'd been there when two guys who were from the same unit as the guy I'd just put away saw me there and started getting all macho and threatening. I wasn't in the mood to start with and their harassment was the proverbial straw, when one of them suggested that he and the rest of his platoon would run a train on me, the first asshole had suddenly found himself staring down the barrel of my pistol as I actually contemplated pulling the trigger, idly wondering if I could kill them both and then claim self-defence.

Gibbs had slowly reached out and carefully pushed my pistol down, then told both of the idiots to beat it and never return or he'd help me bury their bodies. They'd bolted as I sat there, numb and lost, slowly realising how close I'd come to casually committing cold-blooded murder before he'd pushed another scotch my way and told me to drink up, Gibbs had never spoken of how close I'd come but he understood, I respected him in a way I did few others; I was honoured that he'd even consider offering me a job.

"Nah, but thanks anyway man, I appreciate the offer but the other half would have kittens and I don't want to piss her off" His voice turned suddenly intensely curious.

"Her? Since when have you been playing for the other team?" I laughed.

"Oh god Gibbs, you wouldn't say that if you saw her, man I won the jackpot" He chuckled.

"Send me a picture then, I'd be interested to find out what sort of woman whipped you into a happy homemaker" I felt my lips pull into a grin.

"Jerk"

"And you love me for it" I snorted at that.

"Don't flatter yourself man, you were a Marine after all" His laughter was quick and light.

"Army puke" I smiled, Gibbs was a great guy, I really liked him.

"Let me know the next time you're out in LA, you can come and have dinner with us" His voice was full of humour.

"That'd be nice; it'd be good to catch up" I nodded unconsciously.

"It's good to talk man"

"Yeah it is, let's do it again soon. Give me about an hour to start the ball rolling here and then you should be good to go" I glanced at Jane before replying.

"Thank you Gibbs; I really appreciate your help" The smile was back in his voice.

"Anytime, don't forget to send me that picture" I nodded again.

"I will, thanks again man; I owe you"

"That you do, later Ana" Ending the call I smiled at Jane who was sitting there paying a little too much attention to her coffee cup, I shrugged.

"We go back a while" She nodded, realising there was an awful lot nor being said.

"Sounds like" She looked up at me. "So what now?"

"We wait an hour, by which time Troy will have had his attitude well and truly adjusted" her smile was wickedly nasty.

"Can't say I'm too unhappy about that"

We were interrupted by a text on my cell, Gibbs sending through his cell number. I quickly typed out a reply, attaching one of my favourite pics of Nat and I together, taken at last year's LAPD Ball, with the words '_Told you I hit the jackpot :-) Ana_' and sent it off. Seconds later the reply came in. '_Hell yeah, you're looking better too. LG'_. I nodded to myself; I wasn't the person he'd known all those years ago, I had Nat to thank for that, with a little help from my friends. I typed off a quick reply. '_Call me in LA, AR'_, before turning my attention back to Jane.

Two cups of coffee, a ham and cheese sandwich and one text message later, Jane and I walked back into the main NCIS office and walked straight past the desk squid, looking for Troy. The shitty little weasel looked up on our arrival, trying for impassive but failing badly, in fact Troy was looking badly rattled, completely understandable if Gibbs had gone seriously mediaeval on his sorry ass as I'd hoped. I smiled, very politely, no need to create enemies when I didn't have to, besides, if Gibbs had been as good as his word Troy's attitude would have been well and truly adjusted.

"Ah, Agent Romanov, Detective, I've done some digging and I think I've found something" I turned slightly and raised an eyebrow at Jane; '_one attitude adjustment completed'_', getting a barely hidden smirk in return then turned back to look at him.

"That's good news Major, what do you have?" He glanced at several other people clustered around staring at a computer screen and then back at us.

"Come into my office, we can go over it there" Leading us back into his office and closing the door behind us, Troy sat down at his desk and waved us into the seats facing him. I sat down, rested my elbows on the chair's arms and interlaced my fingers as I regarded him over them for just long enough to unsettle him then spoke.

"You were saying..." I prompted as he looked down at some papers on his desk.

"It appears that there may have been a clerical error..." Jane raised an eyebrow from where she was sitting back in her chair, regarding Troy like a well-fed lioness considering a mouse, wondering if she still had a little room left over for a snack.

"Really, a clerical error, fancy that" Her voice was entirely too innocent, she was enjoying this. Troy nodded jerkily, trying to be nice and in charge and failing badly at both.

"Yeah, while the unit was in Afghanistan, it appears a couple of weapons were... unaccounted for" Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow. Jane however wasn't that subtle.

"Do we have any idea how these...couple of weapons might have gone missing?" Troy shook his head, though he was fooling nobody.

"Like I said, probably a clerical error" Jane nodded slowly as I spoke.

"Exactly how much of a clerical error are we talking about?" He pushed some papers around on his desk; obviously he wasn't comfortable with this line of questioning, too bad for him. If he'd actually done his job he wouldn't be in this mess, he'd dug his own grave, who was I to deny him the pleasure of lying in it. He looked up and then back at his desk as he spoke, his voice a little weaker.

"At first glance it appears that a number of M136s might be missing" I ground my teeth together in frustration at his dancing around the subject, leaning forward as I let my frustration bleed into my voice.

"Exactly how many is this number Major?" He waved it away with a gesture.

"Well, we're looking into the exact numbers, not all of which may be involved..." I interrupted his rambling, my voice short.

"How many Major Troy?" He looked down at the papers on his desk and spoke quietly.

"Nine, give or take" Jane shot to her feet, face ablaze with shock and anger, her voice reverberating round the room.

"NINE?!" I'd rarely seen Jane lose it like this; I'd almost be looking forward to it if the situation wasn't so bad; mind you she was on a roll now. "You lost nine ani-tank rockets? And you were trying to cover it up? Jesus H fucking Christ, what the hell were you thinking?" Troy held up his hand in a futile placating gesture as he spoke, his voice trying for soothing, the idiot.

"It might be a clerical error, they could turn up" He might as well have tried to calm a hurricane; Jane was having none of it, she just steamrolled over the top of him.

"They have you useless son of a bitch, in my city, used in an attack that left three people dead. God knows how many more might die before we can find the rest of them" Her voice was equal parts mocking and wrathful. "Eight more maybe loose in Los Angeles, god damn you idiot, a clerical error? What the hell were you thinking?" Troy ditched his futile attempt at being soothing and started to get defensive.

"Hey, it's not my fault" Jane turned away for a moment, trying to get herself under control as I sat back, enjoying the show, after all it's not like Jane wasn't saying much the same as I would have, she then spun back at him, she didn't look like she wanted to rip his throat out anymore but she was still pissed.

"No, you were just going to ignore it, maybe cover it up, just so you and your precious Corp's reputation wouldn't look bad, well let me tell you it's way too fucking late for that you moron" She crossed her arms and stared down at him, her face full of contempt. "How many more people were going to have to die before you grew some backbone and did something about it? Five, ten, twenty maybe?" Troy was on his feet in an instant.

"You're out of line Detective!" Jane wasn't backing down, not that I ever expected her too; I told myself I was perhaps enjoying this show a little too much as she started chewing him a new one.

"And you're a hopeless fucking joke. You better pray no one else dies before I find those weapons because if they do, God help me I will be back out here to drag your sorry ass back to LA to stand trial as an accessory after the fact to murder!" Troy went white at the threat, before trying to get some of his bravado back.

"You wouldn't dare" _'Oh, bad move_' I thought, as Jane was suddenly leaning way across the desk, hands slamming down on the desk top with a loud crash, her face shoved into Troy's as he involuntarily stepped back, half in fear, half shock.

"Don't…Bet…On…It" I'd decided this had gone on long enough and went to speak when suddenly the door to the office swung open, one of the other guys in the office, a Staff Sergeant, standing there with a printout in hand.

"There's more, there's more missing Major..." He suddenly realised this might not have been the best time, his voice trailing off as he took in the tense scene in the office. We all turned to him and I reached out, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him into the room before he could back out.

"Come in Sergeant, tell us all about it" He looked around, seeing a livid Jane, his boss cowed behind the desk and me, not letting go. I forced myself to be calm. "What, exactly did you find?" He stared at his boss, then at us both then jumped as I pushed the door shut behind him, leaving him nowhere to run. "Sergeant…" I prompted. He looked around then down to the printout, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"Uh well, I found the code used for the M136s, it said they were being returned to the Corps Logistics Base up at Albany, but I cross referenced them with the records there and there was no sign they ever arrived" I nodded at him as he looked up.

"Good work, keep going" He nodded frantically, then waved the printout in his other hand.

"So I decided to see if anything else had been coded for return to depot around the same time" I nodded, using his initiative, something I could appreciate, particularly given the monumental cluster-fuck his boss had turned out to be, I made a coaxing motion with my hand.

"And..." Suddenly realising all three of us were hanging on his words, he gulped, then plunged on.

"There's a bunch of other weapons missing" Jane stepped forward, her voice deceptively calm but I could easily see the tension underpinning it.

"What sort of weapons?" The suddenly fearful look on his face caused a sick feeling as the bottom dropped out of my stomach, I already knew that whatever he was about to say, it was going to be bad, real bad. I wasn't wrong; I'd just underestimated exactly how bad it could get.

"Four M2A1 50 Cal heavy machine guns, more than a dozen M16s and two dozen M9 Beretta pistols" The room was dead silent for about five seconds as we took it in. I was too stunned to say anything; together with the M136s that was enough firepower to start a war on the streets of LA, Jane was still taking it in as well. Finally I pulled myself together and turned to Troy, who was still gaping like a goldfish.

"Major Troy, obviously your Sergeant here..." I turned to read his name tag. "Sergeant Entwhistle, has worked out how the weapons theft was concealed. Perhaps he can tell us who could have done it?" Jane stepped back from the table and folded her arms, I could still see the steam coming out of her ears but she stayed silent, letting me run with it for which I was grateful. Troy nodded and turned to Entwhistle, trying to collect his dignity.

"Who would have access to the records and the authority to change them like that Sergeant?"

"Have to be either someone in the Quartermaster's staff or the chief records clerk Sir" I nodded.

"Is there some way to confirm who it might be Sergeant?" Entwhistle's Adam's Apple bobbed up and down as he gulped; he looked like an overgrown college kid, I knew the type, he wasn't the warrior stereotype everyone thinks make up the military, instead he was the sort of computer geek that kept the services running, he knew how to make the fantastically convoluted military IT systems work, he could find things most people didn't even know existed in the DoD computer networks. In other words he was just what we needed right now. He awkwardly gestured back the way he'd came.

"Uh yeah, my computer..." Troy nodded and waved towards the door out of his office.

"Let's see what you can find"

Entwhistle spent the next twenty minutes surfing the DoD systems while we watched, cross checking personnel records, transit and travel documents and the like, in which time he'd confirmed that the name and signature on the transfer was completely bogus. Oh it looked like the Chief Quartermaster's signature on the documents, but he'd been in Afghanistan at the time. Troy looked up.

"It could be a scanned version of his signature used. That's against regulations but some places do that from time to time to make sure paperwork's submitted on time" I nodded, it wasn't exactly uncommon, especially now that computers made everything so easy. Time to let him feel like he was in charge of his own office, we'd need his cooperation as we went forward.

"So where do we go from here?" He stepped back from where he'd been bent over, watching Entwhistle at work and straightened.

"We go and visit Huntsville"


	54. Chapter 54

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**54 Huntsville**

Anastasia's viewpoint

Ten minutes later, Jane and I were sitting in the back of Troy's car with him driving and his 2IC, a Navy Lieutenant he'd introduced as Mark Rosenberg, riding shotgun. The ride had been quiet for a while until Troy finally spoke.

"Agent Romanov..." I looked up to meet his eyes in the rear view mirror and raised an eyebrow in question. "How exactly do you and Gibbs know each other?" I didn't let the smile reach my face though I saw the hint of a smirk grace Jane's lips.

"We served together in Iraq, during the Abu Graib trials" Rosenberg turned in his seat to look at me.

"You a Marine?" I shook my head.

"Army" Troy's head turned a little at that as he spoke.

"What rank?" I kept the nasty smile I felt hidden well inside, Troy was looking for a way to feel like he was in charge again and was looking to pull rank.

"Major" My promotion had come through a few days before I put my discharge papers in, a reward for a job well done according to my boss, even though the 'job' in question had seen me attract the scorn and hatred of way too many people including lots of senior officers.

"You, a Major?" Obvious disbelief colored Troy's voice, I nodded once and let some of my unhappiness bleed into my voice, wanting to shut him down, that part of my life was over and I'd moved on to a better place.

"West Point, military police, multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan" I could see him deflate a little.

"Oh" He was quiet for a moment then tried again. "How'd you end up with the Bureau?" I grimaced; he still wasn't getting the message.

"They made me a better offer" Not exactly the truth but hopefully he'd let it go; fortunately Jane caught my eye, nodded gently then stepped in to change the topic much to my relief, letting me sit back and wait out the drive. Conversation dragged on by fits and starts over the next hour before we passed the sign welcoming us to Huntsville.

Fifteen minutes later we were standing in the office of the senior officer based at the Reserve Training Centre - Huntsville, an artillery officer, Lieutenant Colonel Clayton Thomas, explaining exactly why we there. I had to give him this, he didn't beat around the bush; once we presented the facts he looked round at all of us then picked up his phone and summoned the Chief Quartermaster.

The Quartermaster was a lifer, a Master Chief, immaculate in his service uniform khaki's, creases so sharp you could shave with them, I knew the type, cut him and he'd bleed Marine Corp green. I sat back and let Troy walk him through the information that Entwhistle had pulled from the system, including pointing out that it was the Master Chief's signature on the paperwork. The Chief, Hendrickson, immediately demurred.

"Sir, I don't recall any such transfer and I'd sure as hell remember that number of weapons being transferred in or out of here sir" Troy nodded.

"When we saw your name on the transfer we checked, you were still listed as being in Afghanistan at the time Chief" As Troy and Hendrickson talked through how his signature could have been faked I saw that the Colonel wasn't paying all that much attention to them, instead watching Jane and I. Finally he turned to Hendrickson and spoke, cutting them off.

"Master Chief, I want an immediate inventory of all the weapons on that list, confirm that they're really missing and it's not just an admin snafu. I also want to know who actually signed your name on that transfer paperwork" Hendrickson saluted and left immediately, leaving Troy and Rosenberg standing there. Thomas just lifted an eyebrow at Troy and flicked a finger at the door, getting quick salutes and even quicker departures from both of them. As the door shut Thomas shook his head once before turning to contemplate us both. I suppose having a Colonel scrutinising us was supposed to be intimidating but I'd been on the wrong end of it from three and four star generals so Thomas didn't really rate while Jane didn't give a damn, all she wanted was to get to the bottom of this ungodly mess. Finally Thomas sat back.

"I understand that one of these weapons turned up in Los Angeles, but why are you two here?" Jane glanced at me and I spoke.

"The serial number led here" Thomas shook his head once.

"No, I meant why are you here, both of you, all the way from Los Angeles" I shrugged.

"I traced the weapon's serial number here, then rang and spoke to a clerk here who basically palmed me off, told me to go through proper channels" I pulled a face then continued. "I then rang the NCIS office in Birmingham and got the brush off there too, apparently Major Troy rang here and was told no weapons were missing, so he let things drop" I saw Thomas' jaw tighten as I kept going. "The Deputy Chief back in LA running the investigation decided a hands-on approach was needed down here so Detective Rizzoli and I were sent down here to kick start things into action" Thomas nodded thoughtfully.

"It looks like it's worked, I haven't seen NCIS so switched on in the two and a half years I've been posted here so you've already achieved something notable" He rubbed his chin. "So you and Troy both rang and got the brush off?" I nodded as he looked thoughtful "Any idea who you spoke to when you called?" I pulled my notebook out of my jacket pocket and flipped back several pages.

"I can't speak for Troy, but I spoke to a clerk in the Quartermaster's Branch, a woman named Cornelius" He nodded once.

"I don't recognise the name, which suggests it's one of the civilian staff, let me check" He picked up the phone and asked the question, rapidly learning that Sue-Ellen Cornelius was the senior civilian clerk in the Quartermaster's area. Just as he hung up there was a knock on the door before Hendrickson and Troy entered.

"Sir, we're still conducting an inventory on the rest of the weapons…" It was Hendrickson. "…but I can confirm that the M134s are missing sir" Thomas nodded once.

"Master Chief, what can you tell me about one of your people, a Sue-Ellen Cornelius?" The Chief paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts and then spoke.

"Sir, a civilian staffer, been with the unit for almost five years, oversees most of the inventory record-keeping. Pretty much essential to the IT side of the operation, she's very good at her job" He shrugged. "I've trusted her to run the civilian side of the Branch when we've been deployed sir" Thomas nodded.

"And Miss Cornelius didn't raise it with you that she had received multiple enquiries from Agent Romanov here and then NCIS?" The Chief shook his head.

"No sir, the first I was aware of it was when you called me in earlier sir" Thomas looked across at us, then back to the Chief.

"Please escort Miss Cornelius to my office Chief, see to it personally" Hendrickson saluted and left, leaving the four of us waiting. Thomas asked about the use of the M134 in the robbery back in Los Angeles, Jane filling him in as we waited on Hendrickson; a couple of minutes later he was back.

"Sir, an initial inventory check confirms that the other weapons in question are missing, all listed as transferred to Albany but a call up to the appropriate people up there confirms they have no record of receiving them…" He glanced across at me. "…and Miss Cornelius is no longer on post. Apparently she told her assistant that she wasn't feeling well and left earlier this morning sir" I glanced across at Jane, seeing her jaw tighten, before I stood and turned to the Chief.

"What time this morning Chief?" He looked at Thomas, getting a slight nod before replying. "Around ten this morning ma'am" I ground my teeth, I knew what I was about to hear, turning to Troy.

"What time this morning did you ring here, enquiring about the weapons?" He frowned but couldn't dissemble, not when everyone was standing there staring at him.

"It would have been half nine, maybe a little later" Jane and I exchanged a commiserating glance, half anger, half sorrow, before I looked back at Troy; he almost cringed before looking away. Jane just shook her head then spoke, her voice full of contempt.

"It looks like you tipped her off" She looked across at Hendrickson. "Do you have an address for this Cornelius woman?" Hendrickson nodded.

"Yes ma'am" He glanced over at Thomas. "I recommend we contact the Huntsville Police sir" Thomas nodded once.

"Please Master Chief" Hendrickson nodded and left as I turned to Jane. She returned my gaze, shrugged and then spoke.

"Probably flown the coop, she can't stay here, not when she knows we'll be looking for her" She frowned. "She might try and go to ground here but on the other hand she might try and get the hell out of dodge" She looked round the room. "What's the nearest airport she could get a flight out?" I looked over at Thomas and he rubbed his chin in thought for a moment, it was probably a nervous habit.

"That'd be Birmingham, or across the state border in Nashville or Chattanooga or Memphis or even Atlanta" I nodded and pulled out my phone and my notebook, digging out the number of the local Bureau field office. Ten minutes later, having explained the situation to the Senior Agent in Charge, the TSA was alerted to be on the lookout for Sue-Ellen Cornelius. I was going to have some explaining to do to smooth this over, something that wouldn't have been necessary if Troy had done his job in the first place, the thought making me scowl darkly at Troy, causing him to look away, his stupidity clearly obvious to everyone, including himself. While we waited I turned to Thomas.

"On the dates in question, I take it the unit was deployed?" Thomas nodded.

"That we were, due back from a tour in Afghanistan the following week" I nodded, thinking it through. Jane suddenly spoke up.

"How many people would have been working here during that period?" Thomas sat back.

"A skeleton staff, a couple of uniformed staff, mostly civilians though" Jane nodded.

"Can we have the names of all of them please?"

"No" It was Troy. "This will be a military investigation, you have no jurisdiction here" Jane just turned to look at him then stood slowly, her expression clearly skeptical as was her voice.

"By who, you, yeah right" The scorn in her voice was palpable. "The reason the Bureau is currently checking all local airports is because your half-assed excuse for an investigation tipped off our suspect and gave them several hours head start" She wiped her hand across the space between them dismissively. "If that's your standard for investigation, I'll take the boy scouts or the girl guides, they'd at least do their damned job and make a halfway decent job of it, you couldn't find your ass in broad daylight with both hands and directions" Jane's jab stung Troy into an outraged retort as he tried to exert whatever authority he had left.

"How dare you come traipsing in here acting like you matter worth a damn? This is a military matter, it will be investigated by the military" He narrowed his eyes at Jane; clearly his self-preservation instinct still wasn't working. "Maybe we should have you escorted off post" Jane just smiled evilly.

"Like I said before, you're welcome try" Troy tried to bluster his way through.

"This is an NCIS matter, you have no jurisdiction here, in fact you should get the hell off this base before I have you arrested" I shook my head as Troy spoke, then turned, looking directly at him, letting the contempt I was feeling bleed into my voice.

"Like that worked out so well for you last time" I looked round the room at everyone taking in everyone here, letting everyone know that this was now out of their hands, I was tired of the Troy's stupidity and I was going to enjoy slapping him down publically. "This matter might have been a military one, once, right up until those weapons were taken off post and transported across state lines at which time it became a Federal matter. Then they turned up in Los Angeles and were used in a crime that saw three people killed, at which time it also became a capital crime and an LAPD matter" I turned back and stared at Troy. "You try and have us tossed out and I will personally come back here with a federal warrant and a team from the Judge Advocate General's office to tear you, this unit and your so-called investigation apart" Troy turned his head and sneered at me.

"Like they'd listen to you" I shook my head at his stupidity, I could see now why Gibbs held him in such contempt, an opinion I found myself sharing, the little weasel needed a good swift kick in the balls, and maybe I knew someone who might just be the right weapon for that.

"Perhaps you'd like to explain that to the JAGs Lieutenant Colonel MacKenzie. I could call her if you like?"

Troy didn't look all that confident now, neither did Thomas for that matter, a visit from the JAG investigators was about as welcome as a case of the plague, it was generally seen as a career-limiting move, though to be honest I was kinda bluffing. Sarah and I did know each other, we'd shared quarters together in DC through the simple fact that we both spoke Russian, she'd seen my name on the Single Officers Quarters list and wandered round to find out if I could speak it, when she found I could that sealed the deal and we'd been roomies for almost a year, brushing up each other's Russian; that was a long time ago though and I hadn't spoken to her in ages. Jane meanwhile had taken a step forward, her jaw hard and eyes cold.

"And I am one phone call away from having you subpoenaed to appear as a material witness in front of a judge in Los Angeles, as I demand a search warrant for this unit, your office and your personal email and phone logs" She pulled her phone out and stood there, one thumb hovering above the screen as a feral grin broke out. "Go on, do something really, really stupid"

"Why don't you all sit down" It was Thomas, trying to exert a little command presence. "Major Troy, a little cooperation with civilian law enforcement won't hurt anyone; after all, it was them that first discovered the missing weapons" He turned to Jane and I. "Please have seats ladies, I'm sure we all want to get to the bottom of this matter" Jane and I exchanged a glance and a little shared smug satisfaction then took our seats while we waited.

Twenty minutes later a Captain from the Madison County Sheriff's department arrived and we walked him through what had happened. The Captain, a Craig Laughton, nodded and made a few calls, despatching units to Cornelius' house and getting a BOLO out for her car before he started on his own questions, all related to the actual theft, stuff like how large the items were, how many, would they fit in a car or would a truck be needed, if so how large. It rapidly became apparent that the theft would require a number of people to carry out; just shifting all the weapons in a reasonable time was a job for three or four people. Thomas was already chasing things up with Hendrickson.

"So Master Chief, I want access logs for the period in question and a week either side, lets find out if Miss Cornelius signed anyone in or out during the period" Ten minutes later it was clear that there had been no trucks in or out that couldn't be accounted for by authorised traffic. Jane had been sitting there watching the discussion before leaning forward.

"OK, so no one came in or out during working hours that shouldn't have, what's the system for outside working hours?" Hendrickson frowned.

"There's not supposed to be any unathorised out of hours access ma'am, if there is the night security personnel are supposed to log it" I thought that over as Jane nodded.

"How many security people do you normally have on?" He tilted his head for a moment, thinking.

"One usually ma'am, sometimes two but more normally it's just one unless we have items outside the secure buildings. With the unit deployed there'd only be one" I caught on to what Jane was getting at and looked round the room, then spoke.

"That looks like a good point to start. Once we have the names, perhaps Captain Laughton might be able to shed some light on them" The next hour passed slowly as we waited for a cross reference on the names of the three security guards rostered on during the nights in question. Police had visited the Cornelius house and found it locked up tight with no one around, it looked like our suspect had rabbited, spooked by Troy's call.

"Bingo!" It was Laughton, ending his cell call. "We got a hit on one of the guards, Warren Clancy. It turns out his listed address is the same as your Sue-Ellen Cornelius. I got one of my people to check with the security company and they say he's not due in to work till this afternoon" He shrugged. "Somehow I don't think he's gonna show" Troy looked up.

"Are they related?" Laughton shook his head.

"Nope, but his supervision told my deputy they'd been together for a few years" Looks were passed round the room, before I pulled out my cell and rang the local Bureau office again, adding Warren Clancy's name to the TSA watch list. Jane sat back for a moment thinking it through then spoke.

"So we have Cornelius arranging the paperwork, Clancy lets them in, assume at least two or three people with the truck to load it then they left, somehow the weapons made it to LA. That means several accomplices we don't know about" She looked over at Laughton. "Does Clancy have any known associates, people with a record or that he might have met in prison?" I nodded to myself; Jane had good instincts, ones I'd learned to respect. Laughton shook his head.

"No and no serious criminal record either beyond a regular series of drunk and disorderly's. He apparently gets aggressive when he's had a few, picks a fight at his local bar, the owners call us and we throw him in the drunk tank to sleep it off" He shrugged. "Happens every payday regular as clockwork but he still keeps going back and they still jeep serving him" I nodded slowly, thinking it through.

"What's the name of this bar?" He raised an eyebrow at my question before answering.

"The Crow Bar over on Clancy Street" I looked across at Jane and she nodded, we both needed to do something other than sitting around on our asses here.

"We might go and check into that bar; after all, he kept going back there, so they might know something"

"I'm coming with you" It was Troy. At my frankly disbelieving look he jumped to justify himself. "This is my investigation" I heard Jane scoff openly even as I smiled as nastily as I could.

"I don't think so, this is my investigation and you have no jurisdiction in civilian matters" I caught a shifty look on his face, Troy probably wanted to find out what we might turn up, either to make himself look good in front of his superiors or to get a head start on covering his ass. Either way he could go to hell. I shook my head as I turned to go, looking back over my shoulder.

"You turn up anywhere near the Crow Bar and I will happily arrest you for obstruction of justice and interfering in a Federal investigation, do I make myself clear?" Not waiting for an answer I turned back and waved towards the door. "After you Detective Rizzoli" She smiled.

"Thank you Agent Romanov"

As I followed her out I resolved that it had been too long, I really should give Sarah a call. Smiling to myself a little we left the office, it was time to get out of here away from these idiots and do some real police work.

It was not before time either.


	55. Chapter 55

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**55 Impediments and Obstacles**

Jane's viewpoint

Captain Laughton was kind enough to get one of his guys, an Officer Morris, to drive us down to the bar which was located on Hudson Street. I could tell Troy and the others weren't too unhappy to have us off and out of their way, based on what I'd seen of Troy so far he was probably engaged in a frenzied cover-your-ass exercise right now, possibly in cahoots with the others as they tried to duck the well-deserved shit-storm coming their way.

Now though, sitting in the back of a blue and white parked across the road from The Crow Bar we gave it the once over, you could tell it was a typical small town drinking hole, not exactly set in the most salubrious part of Huntsville either, the sort of place that could best be described as a dive, if you were being charitable. Morris turned around in the front seat and regarded us, a little uncertainly.

"That's the place ma'am, it's not all that busy now but it can get a little rough" I nodded as he continued. "You absolutely sure you don't want me coming in with you? I can get some back up if you want" I looked over at Ana to see her flick a glance back at me, we exchanged thoughts and she nodded, getting one in return before she turned and spoke.

"We should be fine thank you Officer Morris. We might be able to get some more information if you're not with us" I nodded, the local cops had a history with these people, we didn't. I patted him on the shoulder as I reached for the door handle.

"If we need help, we'll give you a call" Morris sounded really dubious.

"Well okay then, if you're sure" Stepping out, I glanced at Ana and got another nod before we crossed the street and walked up to glance though the open doorway. It looked a pretty typical example of the type, walls bedecked with logo's for beer and whiskey brands, a few sports pictures and framed jerseys of Alabama's professional teams accompanying them, a bar running down one side of the room, with another room visible on the other side past the low fridges and racks of bottles, the one bar serving both rooms. She glanced up at me and smiled softly.

"Good cop or bad?" I tipped my head to her.

"Dealer's choice" She grinned happily.

"Good cop then, but feel free to switch if we need to" I nodded and followed her inside as she made her way towards the bar where there was a guy working to restock the fridges, walking up opposite the bar to him.

"Excuse me" He turned to see a very attractive woman standing there, his easy smile said it all, that is until they fell on the Bureau I.D. she was holding, then the scowl appeared as Ana smiled nicely.

"Wondering if you might be able to help us with our investigation" He shrugged, though I could feel the hostility coming off him in waves, he really didn't like cops.

"Dunno, what about?" Ana glanced around the place and then back at the guy, her voice all easy charm to go with the friendly smile as I watched her at work, I hadn't really seen her working an investigation like this and wanted to see her on the job.

"Sorry, I didn't catch your name" He was reserved, almost surly, but I suppose this sort of bar didn't welcome cops unless it had to.

"Roy Jefferson" Ana nodded, all polite charm.

"Hi Roy, good to meet you, I'm Agent Romanov" I smothered a smile, every time I hear that I think of Scarlett Johansen playing the Black Widow. "I was wondering if I could talk to you about one of your customers, Warren Clancy" Jefferson shook his head slowly, obviously not looking to be all that cooperative.

"Can't say I'm familiar with the name" Ana nodded, seemingly unperturbed by his hostile attitude then spoke.

"Really, that's strange, you've called the Huntsville Police often enough to have him dragged out after starting fights here" She smiled nicely. "Apparently a real regular too; you sure you don't remember him?" Jefferson was starting to look a little uncomfortable.

"Like I said, I don't recall anything" I took a few steps forward to stand at the bar a few feet down from Jefferson, making him split his attention between us as he had to turn to look at me as I got to play the bad cop.

"You wouldn't be withholding evidence would you Mister Jefferson? We'd really hate to have you wasting our time here but if we have to we'll get you dragged downtown into an interrogation room so we can ask these questions all over again, except this time as part of charging you with obstruction of justice" He shook his head again.

"I don't know nothing 'bout that, I'm the manager, but the one who'd know all about that is the barman, Billy Ray Elliot. You need to talk to him" I frowned, seeing Ana's slow nod before I spoke.

"And where might he be?" Jefferson nodded at a clock on one wall.

"He's due in at 2 to start his shift" I glanced at the clock; it was 1.46 as Ana nodded again, all light and easy.

"Then by all means let's wait for him, thanks Roy" Jefferson nodded reluctantly as Ana smiled politely before heading over towards the pool table.

"We might as well play a game while we wait" I nodded; we could keep an eye on Jefferson while we did, make sure he didn't make any calls to tip his pal off. We dragged the game out, watching Jefferson and the door, ten minutes later a big guy, massive arms with a Harley tattoo on one bicep, faux-Celtic tats on the other, walked through the door, calling out a greeting to Jefferson as he did. Jefferson nodded back then looked over our way, tipping his head at us.

"Couple people here to talk to you Billy Ray" Elliot's head tilted, then he followed Jefferson's gaze to see us standing there, both of us leaning against the pool table. For a moment his eyes wandered all over us, drawing a scowl from me at his obvious appraisal.

"Who are you two?" Ana levered herself off the table and wandered his way as I drifted towards the door on the off chance he decided to bolt, something about him just set off my cop sense, he might just be a slime ball with wandering eyes, but you never know.

"Agent Romanov with the Bureau of Investigations" She smiled, all friendly and non-threatening. "I'd like to ask you a few questions about one of your customers Billy Ray" He looked her up and down again before his gaze came to rest on her breasts, Ana was wearing a white button up and a blazer over her slacks, both of which were chosen to not emphasise her cleavage, for all that though she still had a rack almost as good as Maura's and it was still noticeable.

"Dunno, don't remember much about them" Ana was unfazed.

"Sure you do Billy Ray, you're a bartender, knowing your customers and listening to them talk's all part of the job" He shrugged, letting his eyes wander again, before they came back to settle on her breasts. I could see Ana was still playing the good cop but if this idiot kept his behavior up I could see her bad cop routine getting a workout real soon. "What can you tell us about Warren Clancy?" I didn't miss the quick frown that flashed across his face before he folded his arms and schooled his face into a bored expression.

"Don't know him, sorry" Ana sighed as I took a step forward, time to play my part

"Hey you!, Get your eyes off of my partners chest and answer the goddamned question" He looked over and frowned, either at my tone or my figure as he ran his eyes over me, then back at Ana, obviously he preferred her shape, as his voice took on a petulant tone.

"Like I said, I don't remember anything about a Warren Clancy" Ana shook her head sadly.

"That's funny, you've called the cops often enough to have him dragged out to sober up, surely you'd remember a regular like that"

"Nope, can't say I do" I exchanged a glance with Ana, I could tell she was starting to get annoyed with him, his denials and attitude both, the glance told me she was getting pissed and be ready to back her up. My small nod said it all, '_always_'. I got a hint of a smile as the good cop persona went away, letting her bitch out as she turned back.

"Well then, I suppose we'll have to have you dragged downtown and you can spend the next 24 hours in lockup till we can get you charged with obstruction of justice on a federal investigation, that should be good for a bit of jail time" That threat drew a yelp from him.

"Hey, I ain't done nothing wrong!" Ana just shook her head.

"Sure you have pal, you're wasting my valuable time and that of my partner, I was hoping we'd have a quick chat, you answer a few simple questions and we'd be on our way and you'd be on yours. Now you're just being stupid and pissing me off, so that's enough to see you spend some time in lockup" Billy Ray decided he was as dumb as his name suggested.

"You ain't got nothing on me you dumb cunt, so you can just fuck off, I know my rights, you ain't got anything to pin on me" He sneered at her, his voice mocking "Remember, I have the right to remain silent so you can suck my dick you fucking ho" Ana shook her head, looking over at me.

"Why do they all say the same thing, claim they have rights, then go on to insult us" I shrugged.

"Not even particularly inventive about it either, I suppose if he had two brain cells to rub together he wouldn't be mopping up piss and vomit after the drunks in a deadbeat bar in downtown buttfuck Alabama" Ana nodded.

"True" She looked back at him and I could tell she was about to rile him up, all part of the deal to get him to do something stupid. "C'mon Elliot, surely you can come up with something better than that, or are you as stupid as your name suggests?" She shrugged. "Sure, you've got rights, but I'm with the Feds, we can screw you over so many different ways you'll end up getting a whole new education" She smiled up at him. "All you have to do is answer a few simple questions and we're in the breeze, no muss, no fuss; surely it can't be that hard?"

Elliot ran his eyes over her blatantly then slumped into the nearest chair, crossing his arms mullishly.

"I ain't got nothing to say to you" Ana went to turn to me when Elliot gave her the opening she'd been looking for. "Pair of you ho's should fuck off out of here, only thing your good for is flashin' those nice big titties and getting on your knees, sucking my dick, like the little piggy whore you are" He brayed with laughter at his own wit, but I wasn't interested, instead I watched as Ana turned slowly, she may have been shorter than Elliot, but right that moment size didn't matter. The look in her eyes was icy cold, reminding me that Ana had been a soldier, one who'd fought in wars and who'd killed before; her voice matched the look.

"What exactly did you say?" I thought Jefferson might have stepped in at that point and said something to defuse the situation but he seemed almost indifferent to what was going on, either too stupid or too bigoted to care, even as Elliot dug himself further in it.

"Look you little ho, why don't you and this other piggie slut here toddle off back to wherever the fuck you came from, go an get yer nails done, maybe go practice your head jobs or something useful and leave the real work to the men" Her voice was cold, as was the bare ghost of a smile I could see, she was getting what she wanted, now to needle hi m into doing something stupid.

"If I could find any round here I might, but all I have to work with are you and him" She jerked her thumb at Jefferson. "So are you going to get off that cookie cushion you call an ass and answer my questions or am I going to have to kick you into gear" Elliot proved he was a complete ass, looking up at her with a leer.

"You're welcome to try girly, just don't complain when you're face down getting your ass reamed by my cock afterwards" At that Ana just beckoned him forward with her hand.

"If you're man enough to try, I'm happy to give you what you want" For a moment I thought he was going to take her up on it, then he waved her away.

"Naw, don't fight little girly's, no matter how nice their rack" He leered at her breasts all too obviously. "All you're good for is fucking, not fighting" Ana's voice was insolent and cutting all at once as she taunted him, her words crude, totally unlike her.

"And I don't normally fight meat-headed brain-dead fuck-tards, but in the interest of teaching you manners, I'm willing to make an exception in your case" She smiled condescendingly. "Or are you too busy jacking off to old Playboy calendars or free internet porn because no decent woman would be caught dead near you, given that foul odour you give off?" She tilted her head. "Is that the stench of Axe I smell, or just stale beer and piss on you?" Ana smiled at him, all mocking sweetness. "Or do you play bottom to every drunk that passes through here, it'd explain your foul odour" She held up her hand pseudo-placatingly. "Not that there's anything wrong with you being gay of course, maybe you should come out of the closet Billy Ray and admit you suck cock because you can't get women…" I could tell the exact moment Ana's crude taunts struck home, as rage flashed in Elliot's eyes.

"Fucking bitch" Ana's eyes widened in mock-surprise at his anger and words, even as she further goaded him.

"Really, I didn't think you swung that way, you and boys and all…" I flicked a concerned glance at Jefferson.

"Are you going to do something or what?" He turned as I heard a scrape behind me as Elliot shot out of the chair with a shout.

"Fucking bitch, I'll teach you to come in here with your shitty attitude..." Jefferson shrugged.

"Your stupid friend here got herself into this mess, she can get herself out" I turned and glared at him.

"You sure you want to play it this way?" I glanced at Ana, to see her smiling slightly. "He's going to get smashed" He sneered at me in disbelief.

"Billy Ray? Nah, he's a local bare knuckle champion, your little girl's gonna get a lesson in why you don't piss off a real man" I looked at him for a moment and shook my head.

"Hope you can do your job short-handed, cause you're about to be one real man down" He shook his head.

"Bullshit" I shrugged nonchalantly, I knew Ana and I'd back her against any two of thugs like Elliot, same as she'd back me.

"Twenty says your wrong" Jefferson shrugged.

"You're on" I turned back to see Ana carefully settling herself on the balls of her feet, though she was trying to look casual. Elliot stepped forward, attempting to grab Ana, who ducked to one side, not as fast as I knew she could move. Elliot wasn't trying to hit her, just grab her, but she was playing it smart, not letting her opponent get an inkling of her real speed, I knew better though, Ana had less strength and reach than me, but she was way faster.

"Come here bitch" Elliot lunged again and she ducked under his outstretched arms before pushing him off balance, making him stumble into a table like a drunk, even as she goaded him with a mocking chuckle. From where I was standing I could see his face, could see the exact moment the fury hit Elliot, mixed with embarrassment as his face flushed red before he pushed himself off the desk, spinning towards Ana and leading with his fist, right through where she'd been a half second before. Before he could recover Ana had spun, her left foot connecting in a snap kick right over his kidney even as I winced; that one would hurt like hell even though I could tell she'd pulled the force of the kick. Elliot's hand dropped to the place she'd kicked as his eyes narrowed in pain and anger, his voice low and angry as I realised he wasn't thinking, she'd grabbed the initiative and he hadn't even realised it.

"Uppity bitch, I'm gonna teach you a goddamned lesson you'll never fucking forget" She shrugged, dropping back into a relaxed stance and waiting for his next move.

"I doubt you've much to teach me, but feel free to try"

Elliot shot a fist out, aiming for her torso, only to find Ana had sidestepped him, grabbing his arm and twisting it hard, pulling him off-balance even as she kicked out at his leg, tripping him and sending him sprawling across the floor. She took another step back and flicked her hair back away from her face with an almost contemptuous wave of her hand as we watched Elliot surge back to his feet. Proving he wasn't completely stupid, he moved towards her much more slowly, watching her over his fists.

"All those fancy moves ain't gonna help you when I get my hands on you bitch" She smiled.

"That's an if, not when" I watched them both, evaluating Elliot's moves, he was big and strong, a brawler, skilled enough but untrained except for whatever he'd learned the hard way in his fights, Ana was smaller, not as strong, but was faster, better trained and had a killer instinct that Elliot, for all his bluster lacked. If Ana had really wanted this over, it already would be.

He feinted a few times as Ana ducked and weaved, getting a feel for his reach and speed, backing up as she drew Elliot into following her, having sparred with her enough I could see what she had planned even before she did it, it'd be a little easier for me, I'm taller and have more reach but she was fast enough to pull it off; she blocked a right jab, stepping inside it, just in time for her opponent to capitalise on what he thought was her mistake, she'd stepped close enough for him to bring his size into play, his left fist swinging round to trap her against his right arm, not realising he'd also come close enough to allow her inside his defences.

Ana ducked below the swinging arm, dropping to the floor on one hand and knee before her other leg pistoned out at full stretch, her boot heel sinking deep into his stomach even as I applauded her restraint, if she'd been serious that heel would have landed about three inches lower and turned Elliot into a soprano, as it was he folded and dropped to the ground gasping in pain even as Ana rolled out of the way and to her feet. I looked up at movement off to one side to see three men standing in the doorway to the other bar, looking like they might want to intervene so I pushed my jacket back, letting them get a good look at my badge.

"Police people, you can go about your business" I noticed all three didn't move, instead standing there and watching as Ana dissassembled Elliot quickly and methodically, one of them even nodding in quiet appreciation.

As I looked back I saw Elliot had got up, now angry he'd tried a roundhouse punch at Ana who'd sidestepped Elliot's wild swing, bringing her leg up, then stomping hard with her heel into the back of the closest calf, the shooting pain dropping Elliot to one knee where she swung her forearm into the back of his neck, the impact to his spine sending pain spasms right throughout his body and driving him face-first into the ground. Jefferson suddenly stepped forward, obviously intending to intervene until I threw my leg up, resting my foot on an adjacent table edge like a boom gate and stopping him cold. He looked at me as I waved him back.

"Your stupid friend here got into this mess… wasn't that what you said?" I smiled nastily. "Let's see if he can get out of it" He shook his head angrily.

"I don't care what kinda fancy moves that girly's got, she can't come in here and do that!" I shrugged.

"Watch her, you might learn something, manners maybe" He turned to me as Ana waited for Elliot to get to his feet again, his hands balling into fists, something I didn't miss as he spoke.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I smiled at him.

"I'm the one asking the questions. And if you're getting any damn foolish ideas I'm also her sparring partner, you might want to think long and hard about that before you do anything really stupid" I glanced over at Ana and saw her waiting for Billy Ray to get to his feet again, looking at her with equal measures of pain and anger in his eyes as she beckoned him in.

"C'mon pal, lets end this" I could tell Elliot wasn't in the best shape, he was used to taking the hits but Ana was targeting nerve bundles and joints, just like we trained to do. He took another step forward just as Ana had expected, she dodged the first swing, blocked the second then swung her leg in a scything arc, collecting his knee which folded like a house of cards, dumping him unceremoniously back on the floor. Obviously Ana had had enough and decided to stop playing with him, she dropped one knee into the small of Elliot's back, pinning him as she grabbed his arm, twisting it hard up between the shoulder blades as Elliot groaned, drawing a little wince from me as she did, much further and she'd be tearing tendons . He groped for her with his other hand but she quickly pinned it down even as she forced his other arm a fraction higher, dragging another yelp of pain from him.

"Now Billy Ray, I'm going to let go and step away, we're going to have a civilised talk where I ask questions and you answer, otherwise I am going to kick your ass somewhere into next week" She leaned down a little closer. "Do you understand me?" He nodded frantically, the pain obvious in his voice.

"Yeah, okay already" Ana quickly stepped up and back, straightening her jacket and shirt as Elliot climbed to his feet. He may have been a head taller than her, but everyone watching knew who'd won. I smiled to myself, it was cop psych 101; when dealing with punk thugs like Elliot here asskicking = authority, Ana had just taken down the top dog around here, making her alpha right now. She casually leaned back against a table.

"Here's the deal, you tell me all you know about your friend Warren Clancy and we call it quits" As Elliot went to say something I shrugged and spoke.

"Otherwise I walk outside and ask Captain Laughton's people to arrest you on a whole range of charges, including attempted assault on a federal officer" I smiled. "That one's probably going to guarantee you some jail time" Elliot's voice was a plaintive wail.

"Hey, she assaulted me!" I grinned.

"That's not going to be how that plays out in front of the judge" I looked over at Jefferson. "Bare knuckle champion you said? I wonder what the judge might think about that" I looked back at Elliot. "There's a squad car outside waiting to take you downtown" I smiled at him. "Start talking or start walking" Both men exchanged a glance then looked back at us, before Elliot's head dropped as he looked down while Jefferson spoke up.

"Yeah, we know Clancy; he's a regular, bit of a deadbeat, comes in regular like and gets wasted" I nodded.

"Tell me more" Jefferson shrugged.

"He ran up a tab, always saying he was about to pay it off, he'd get paid, pay some of it off then he'd run it up again, I was at the point of cutting him off when he fixed his tab up" Ana looked over at him.

"How exactly?" Jefferson and Elliot exchanged a look, and then Jefferson replied.

"Clancy came in, paid all the outstanding bills on his tab; hell, he gave us an even hundred extra for letting his bill slide for a while" Ana frowned.

"I take it he didn't normally have all that much cash?" Jefferson shook his head.

"Not hardly, he drank most of it" Happy to see some cooperation I kept the ball rolling.

"How much was his bill?" Elliot sat there, resentment all over his face, but answered the question anyway.

"All up over five hundred, he paid in cash"

"Did he mention where he got it?" They both shook their heads before Elliot spoke.

"Nope, but I did see him hanging round with a couple of bikers not long before then" Ana and I exchanged a glance before I spoke.

"You know these bikers?" He shook his head again.

"Nope, never saw them before, there were a few of them in town that week, then gone" I exchanged another glance with Ana, seeing her eyes reflect the same interest as I was feeling, before I turned back to Elliot.

"Did you see these biker's colours?" He looked up, his brow furrowed as he wondered where I was going with this.

"Might have, but didn't pay no attention to them" He shrugged. "As long as they're paying and don't cause too much trouble then I got no problem with them" I looked down at him as I took a step closer, my skepticism evident in my voice.

"Bullshit, you have a Harley tat on your arm, someone with one of those doesn't just forget Harley's and the people who ride them" I looked down at him. "Try again" I smiled nastily. "Try harder"

"I told you, I don't remember" Ana shook her head, mock sadly, then spoke, regret in her voice.

"Billy Ray, I'm going to give you some free advice so listen up, this is my partner you're talking to, she's also my sparring partner, she kicks my ass most of the time and has a much worse temper, so if I were you I'd start talking, before she kicks the shit out of you" She smiled nicely and examined her nails, then looked up, all innocence. "Just a suggestion" I rubbed my palms together as I gave him a once over, he looked up at me, then back down, before he spoke quietly.

"They were all wearing biker colours, a bloody tombstone and crossed bones, I don't remember the name" He shrugged. "I remember the bikes, but not the club" Ana nodded.

"You're sure Clancy was talking to these guys right before he paid off his tab?" They both nodded, before Elliot spoke.

"I watched him get up with them, they left and he came over to pay up. I was so surprised I called Roy here over" Jefferson nodded in agreement as Ana and I exchanged another look, we'd got what we wanted, it was time to get out of here. I put my hands on my hips and regarded both of them.

"We're going to check up your info, if it turns out you've stringing us some line of BS, we'll be back and this time I get to kick your ass" I looked at both of them. "Clear?" Elliot nodded.

"Yeah" Jefferson was a bit dumber.

"Whatever" I smiled, not at all pleasantly.

"Personally, I'd like to have a reason to come back, I like delivering a good ass kicking, in between having my nails done" I stepped forward into his space. "For your sake I really hope your info pans out, otherwise you'll be eating soup and puree'd foods while the doctors replace your teeth" I leaned in a little as his eyes widened. "Understand?" He nodded once but it was enough. With that Ana and I turned and walked out, exchanging a smile as we did. I looked across at her as the door swung closed behind us.

"Enjoy yourself?" Her grin turned feral.

"Oh yeah, I feel so much better now" I smirked.

"Next time I get some stress relief, OK?" She laughed.

"Deal"


	56. Chapter 56

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**56 Meanwhile Back Home**

Natalie's viewpoint

With both Jane and Anastasia away, it had been only natural for me to stay over at their place tonight; neither of us slept all that well alone and it was unsaid but understood that Maura and I'd sleep together tonight, each a comforting substitute until our absent lovers were home. Staying at their place also meant Jo and Bass were being looked after, apparently while Jo was vocal about having people around, Bass tended to end up holing up in the laundry if he was alone for prolonged periods of time, Maura suggesting it was his way of coping, an alternative form of nesting-like behavior, while Jane insisted it was simply him looking for somewhere quiet to sleep.

We'd had a typically delicious quinoa and wild rice salad, with Maura commenting that it was nice to occasionally make something vegetarian for a change, apparently it was difficult given the need for significant protein to support Jane's workout program, not to mention Jane's loudly-voiced preference for what Maura, with characteristic restraint, describes as 'sub-optimal dietary choices'. I just smiled and thanked my lucky stars that I have Ana, she's such a good cook that I don't care whether or not there's meat in what I'm eating, it's sure to be delicious. Given Maura's skills in the kitchen I'm pretty much certain that a lot of Jane's complaints are pretty much pro-forma, more out of habit than anything else.

Dinner had been nice, we'd chatted about everything and nothing, things we wanted to do together, shopping, sightseeing, a weekend trip through California's vineyards to stock up on some of their better wines, a list of houses Maura wanted to look at next weekend; they were still looking for a permanent home out here. We'd spent some time looking but nothing had jumped out at us as a place suitable for them long-term, in Maura's case long-term meant for the next 20-30 years, long enough to raise kids to adulthood. I'd smiled at that, Maura was nothing if not thorough, I knew any kids lucky enough to have her and Jane as parents were going to be unbelievably fortunate, they'd grow up in a house full of love, never having to know what it was like to be alone. Given all I'd learned about Maura's childhood I knew without asking that Jane would ensure that their kids never had to suffer through that lonely trauma.

Thinking about their kids made me reflect on the same thing for us, Ana and I both wanted them, we didn't care how many as long as they were healthy and happy. We'd kind of agreed that when the time was right I'd carry the first pregnancy, she'd carry the second. I'd never tell her this but deep down I'd really love for us both to have twins, I grew up with Lauren there for almost as long as I could recall, she'd been born when I was two, and having her there had made growing up special, we'd never had to be alone, we always had the other one there no matter what. In my deepest dreams I'd imagined us raising two boys and two girls, the kids looking like a mix of the best of us both, surrounded by the best godparents imaginable, I couldn't think of anything better than having our friends involved in the lives of our kids, role models didn't get much better than people like Jane and Liv and Alex and Maura.

Smiling to myself I'd put that happy image to one side as we chatted happily, we spent a few minutes discussing wedding plans, just laughing and joking, when Maura idly mentioned Jane's dream about getting married at Fenway Park. I pointed that it would be a very small wedding given most of the guests wouldn't dream of voluntarily standing in the centre of the Sox's hallowed ground. Liv for example, she was a Mets die hard through and through, Ana was a dyed in the wool Mariner's fan, most of the people we worked with out here were Dodger's fans and even I, in the absence of a professional team in Wyoming, supported the Colorado Rockies, as tragic as that was. Maura just laughed and agreed that it might be a small problem and that perhaps somewhere a little less provocative might be a better alternative.

As we finished off with a raspberry sorbet gelato the talk turned to what to do the next time Alex and Liv were visiting. Maura had spoken to Alex a few days before and apparently they were catching up with her old beat partner Kate Beckett and her partner Richard Castle, they were planning to head up to Rick's house in the Hampton's for a weekend away, something which sounded wonderful, everything I'd seen of those two told me they'd been good for each other and it was good to see them reunited after years apart.

We'd finished and cleaned up everything before eventually settling down on the couches in the living room. Maura had asked if there was anything I wanted to watch but I'd indicated the attaché case full of files I'd brought with me and told her I was behind on paperwork so I really should catch up. She'd smiled and walked off, returning a minute or so later with a small stack of medical and science journals, drawing a question from me.

"Don't you read the electronic versions?" She smiled as she looked over at me from the other couch, carefully settling herself while taking care to not disturb Jo who was asleep at the other end of her couch

"I should, if only for environmentally sustainable reasons, however there is something about the look and feel of the printed word in your hand that I find soothing" Maura shrugged. "Perhaps I am a holdout against the complete takeover of information distribution via electronic means" She held up a copy of 'The Lancet', a medical journal I recognised from my university days. "While I understand the many benefits of electronic publishing and distribution, when the decision is made that publishers will no longer print hard copy versions of their journals, I will regret their passing"

"What then, getting everything on your tablet?"

"That would be the most likely result, I have already decided that when that time comes I will pass my hard copy archives to a university library, perhaps as something of a monument for future students to peruse, looking back on an older time" I nodded as a memory came to me.

"I remember reading once that the printed word, in the form of the daily newspaper, was the ultimate expression of the industrial revolution. Hundreds of people across a vast range of disciplines working together to gather information from across the city, the country and the world, to create the stories, the features, the classifieds and the sports sections, develop illustrations and eventually photos, lay everything out using movable type, then source vast quantities of paper and ink to print the paper on huge printing presses, collate the pages then disseminate the paper far and wide and then back up the next day to do it all over again, day after day for well over two centuries" Maura nodded, something like sadness in her eyes.

"I will mourn the loss of the printed word, particularly books" She sat there for a moment, both of us reflective then spoke. "A good book is a rare treasure. '_When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library_'. That was Jane Austen" She smiled then continued. "I always promised myself that any house I owned would have a good library" I nodded.

"We don't have the room for a large library, but we both read lots and e-books are pretty convenient, I agree though there's nothing like a book" We were quiet for a little while before we settled down; each intent on our task. I don't know how long I'd been at it before I was suddenly startled out of my work by a steaming cup of tea appearing in front of me. I looked up to see Maura standing there, a similar cup in her other hand.

"It has been well over an hour and you were quite engrossed" I smiled.

"I'm reviewing the department's annual report section, tedious and not exactly enjoyable but it has to be done" I took the offered cup. "Thank you" Her smile was small but lovely to see as she spoke.

"You are most welcome" I sipped the tea, Earl Grey, Captain Picard's favourite, the part of me that's a trivia player noted as Maura resumed her pose and picked up her journal again. As I watched she became engrossed and her eyes devoured the pages ravenously, flipping pages at an alarming rate. I read fast, it's practically a requirement in this job where you spend your day reviewing and synthesizing information and distilling down widely disparate media sources into comprehendible chunks for management, but Maura's speed put me to shame.

"I didn't know you could speed read" Maura looked up, surprised by my question. She moved the journal in her hand.

"I am very fortunate in that I have both a very high reading speed and comprehension rate, I can retain almost all that I read and am able to retrieve the information almost verbatim" I pursed my lips in thought, then spoke.

"A photographic memory?" She tipped her head agreeably.

"In essence yes, but not for everything, for me it works best for the written word. My memory is not as good at recalling the spoken word, especially colloquialisms, hence why I miss so many conversational cues, especially those involving slang and idiom" I smiled reassuringly.

"I wouldn't worry about it, you speak perfectly, barely a contraction or any idiom in your voice, hell I speak professionally and wish I was as refined as you"

"Your voice is perfect for your role; you convey information in a voice that is by turns confident, authoritative and reassuring" I smiled and nodded, a little embarrassed at her compliment as she turned to reach for her tea cup.

"If I couldn't, I'd be in the wrong profession. Speaking of voices by the way…" Maura looked back as I paused. "…I didn't mention it before but you sing really well" She looked surprised.

"Oh?" I nodded, remembering her voice, sweet and soft in that dim bar in New York.

"Yeah, you sang back in New York, it was lovely" She smiled, a trifle shyly.

"It was part of my curriculum, my parents were insistent that I be exposed to a well-rounded education and whilst I doubt my tutors had popular culture in mind when they prepared and delivered my lessons, it has proven as equally adaptable to pop music as to the intended arias" I raised an eyebrow.

"You can sing opera?" She shook her head slowly.

"Not well enough to perform but my tutors were thorough, so yes, I could, if necessary, I was assessed as possessing an adequate Mezzo-soprano tessitura voice" I shook my head, but it's Maura, nothing about her should surprise me any more.

"Wow" She blushed slightly and looked down.

"Sadly my ear for music is not all it should be, hence the only instrument I can play is the piano and I need sheet music to do so" I smiled at her modesty.

"Hey, at least you can play, I can kinda play the guitar but I'm no Santana" She looked back up at me, her voice quiet as her eyes tracked Bass as he made his ponderous way across the room from the hall to the kitchen.

"My piano teacher said I played technically well but lacked passion, my music was competent but not inspired" I nodded as I put my tea cup down, looking up at her once I'd got it safely settled.

"Music's one of those things you have to feel, some people have it, most don't. I mean the idea that someone can sit down in front of a blank sheet of paper and write a song that resonates and moves people the world over, that really blows me away, it's like something magical, I can barely understand it, not a hope in hell of doing it" Maura nodded slowly, obviously thinking it over before speaking.

"Sadly the same is true of me, I lack the emotion to project it though music" '_Not a chance_' I thought, not based on what I'd seen and heard.

"I don't believe that for a second, that song you sang back in New York; that was beautiful and full of emotion" Maura suddenly smiled.

"Ah yes, Hands, by Jewel Kilcher, I perhaps empathise with the concepts, if not the specific religious overtones of the piece" She shrugged. "The fact that I was there amongst friends, standing with Jane while she played, made it possible" I smiled at the memory of them both there, that had been a very special night.

"Well you sing beautifully, even if it wasn't something your tutors would have approved of" Her smile was quick, easy and beautiful; you could easily see why Jane lived for them.

"Oh no, popular music was far to frivolous in their opinion to waste valuable lesson time on"

"Stuff em, we liked it and that was all that counted. Besides, all that training just meant that you were perfect at it"

"Regrettably that is not always true. I sometimes miss cues and get them wrong" She smiled a little. "There was a track I heard on the radio and rather enjoyed the cadence and tempo, I heard it a few times and started to sing along with it on the radio when I was alone, one day Jane walked in on me singing in the kitchen at our home in Boston, when I turned round she was holding her stomach as she tried not to laugh out loud. When I, somewhat angrily I might add, asked her what the problem was she told me I had the lyrics all wrong. It was _our lips are sealed_, not _Alex the Seal_" I suddenly laughed out loud, remembering the song, waving away any problems she might have had.

"Don't worry about it Maura, everyone gets that one wrong. Hell, I did for ages when I heard it growing up" Seeing her still a little downcast I decided I wanted to see that smile again. "Besides, it's nowhere near as embarrassing as mine"

"Oh" He eyes widened and she smiled happily. "Please go on" I swallowed for a moment then pressed on, it may be embarrassing, but I'd deliberately gone there.

"There's this track called Groovejet by a DJ named Spiller. Anyway it features a English singer named Sophie Ellis Bexter who sings 'if this ain't love' but because of her accent every time I hear it I hear 'anal fisting love', no matter how much I know what's actually being sung" Maura's jaw dropped, making me flush, I could feel my cheeks burn, before that beautiful smile appeared again, making my embarrassment worth it.

"Oh dear, that makes my error seem almost inconsequential by comparison" I nodded.

"I know, I know, tell me about it. What makes it worse is the following line, which is 'why does it feel so good'" I shook my head and waved my hands. "Argh!" That got an honest to god giggle out of Maura.

"That was a particularly infelicitous juxtaposition of content in that case" I nodded, remembering one incident in particular that Ana still teases me about to this day.

"Embarrassing, especially the first time Ana walked in to hear me singing along with MTV, I turned around and she was standing there, arms crossed, leaning in the doorway as I changed the sheets on our bed. She just looked at me, did the whole Spock eyebrow lift thing then said she hadn't really pegged me for that sort of girl but if that was what turned me on..." Maura's quick laugh was light and happy, making me smile in turn, before she spoke.

"Oh, that would be...awkward"

"You have no idea. Even today every time that song comes on Ana teases me about it and I turn as red as a beetroot"

We chuckled together for a moment, before we both went back to our reading, as I edited the various sections of the report, some of it was quite good but the overall tone needed work, the report needed to have a uniform style and voice, so it read as a whole, not a disjointed series of sections, I sighed and looked up, this was going to take more than just one night to pull together. As I did I noted it had gotten late, the antique clock on the wall showing it was five to eleven. I looked over at my companion and spoke up.

"C'mon Maura, lets head to bed" She looked up, concerned then glanced at the wall clock, noting the time, then back at me.

"I am sorry, I did not realise it was getting late. You must be tired" I smiled, that was Maura, always concerned for everyone else.

"Not really, maybe I just want to get you into bed" I winked. "Never let it be said that as a connoisseur of the exquisite female form I was going to miss another opportunity to bed Maura Isles" Her smile widened as she laid her journal aside, her voice taking on a teasing lilt.

"My you are rather taken with yourself, young lady. I would like to have you know that extremely few are fortunate enough to share my bed even once, let alone on multiple occasions" I gave her a considering look as I stood.

"Hmm, you can't be that choosy, I mean…Jane?" I got a sly smile.

"Jane has many talents and attributes, all of which warrant regular reappraisal" I feigned outrage even as I walked her way.

"Hey, I have all sorts of talents too" She tilted her head up to regard me standing there.

"You must, otherwise why exactly would Anastasia keep you around?"

"What can I say, I'm very persuasive" I reached out my hand to help her off the couch. "C'mon Maura, the sooner we get to sleep the sooner they're back home with us" Maura looked at me with a perplexed look then smiled happily even as she took my hand.

"The logical part of my mind could point out the numerous flaws with that statement; my heart on the other hand finds itself in complete agreement with you, so let us go to bed" I collected both tea cups and rinsed them in the sink as Maura turned the rest of the lights off, even as Jo roused herself as she realised we were moving, happily trotting off to the bedroom, relocating into her basket there. I watched as Maura paused to leave several leaves and a strawberry out for Bass, crouching to pat his head and speaking softly to him for a moment as I watched, she'd make a great mother even if she worried about her ability in that area though we all knew better, but she still doubted herself even if we sure as hell didn't. Finally she stood and smiled at me.

"Shall we?" I nodded.

"Just remember not to hog all the covers this time" She glanced over her shoulder as she led the way up the hall.

"I might remind you that the covers you refer to do belong to me, and thus my possession of them is hardly an issue" I smiled, neither of us actually needed them, both of us slept a little warm, so we didn't need to worry about getting cold, especially as from previous experience I knew we were both snugglers.

A couple of minutes later I came out of the guest bedroom en-suite after cleaning my teeth and getting the last of the make up off. Maura was already in bed, wearing one of Jane's pajama tops and a pair of sleep shorts in deference to having a friend in her bed. I was wearing one of Ana's old and massively over-sized FBI tee shirts that was soft and worn and smelt of her, probably for the same reason Maura was wearing Jane's top. I slipped into bed behind her as she reached out to turn off the bedside lamp, leaving the room bathed in a soft light from the lights of LA. I rolled to face her and reached out, finding her already moving back towards me. I slipped my arm under hers and pulled her back against me, feeling her snuggle back against me as we settled. She'd told me before that I reminded her of Jane, tall and slim, whereas she was all curves, reminding me of Ana. I wriggled a little; getting nicely settled against her then placed a gentle kiss to her shoulder, getting a soft hum in response.

"Good night Natalie"

"Night Maura" I felt her hand come up to cover mine then interlace our fingers as she held my hand against her torso, just below her breasts. I smiled at the intimacy of it, but it felt like it did when I slept with Lauren back home, warm and comforting and loving and safe and just right.

I was still smiling as I fell asleep, dreaming of our kids and their kids amid a feeling of sheer joy.


	57. Chapter 57

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**57 Chi-Town**

Jane's viewpoint

We walked back into the Reserve Training Centre to find everyone still standing round talking in circles, so it was really satisfying to basically lay down all we knew and see the looks they gave us. All bar Laughton that is, I guess he must have worked out how we go our info, not that he seemed to have all that much of problem with it though. Ana was walking them through what we'd learned.

"Apparently he got paid by some bikers that the guys at The Crow Bar claim they didn't recognise. Were there any incidents with bikers in town around that time?" Laughton made a show of thinking it over then nodded.

"Oh yeah, I remember them. We had a whole bunch of bikers from all over the country meet up at a property just out of town. We called in a lot of help from surrounding jurisdictions to help us out" He grimaced. "Lots of fights, lots of traffic citations and the amount of drugs in circulation went way up while they were here" He shook his head ruefully. "I remember them all right" I looked over at him.

"What bike gangs?"

"Just one, but they had chapters from all over, call themselves the Blood Brothers" I frowned, they didn't mean anything to me and I glanced over at Ana, seeing her shake her head as well. She dug her phone out and rang someone at the Bureau's Washington headquarters, turned out she was ringing their crime database people. Two minutes later she ended the call and looked around, ignoring most of the room and locking eyes with me.

"The Blood Brothers are a typical nation-wide outlaw motorcycle gang, they're into the usual drugs, prostitution, car rebirthing and violent crime like a lot of other bikers, but a number of their chapters have a rep for gun running" I nodded slowly, then turned to Laughton.

"Can you confirm the dates they were in town please" He checked, confirming they'd been here several weeks ago, more than long enough to get the weapons driven back to LA and either used or more likely on sold. More than that, it coincided with the period that the weapons went missing. I looked back at Ana and thought out loud.

"The Blood Brothers are in town, they have some sort of connection to Cornelius, she fiddles the transfer papers on the weapons to hide their theft, her boyfriend lets a truck in after hours to collect the weapons and get out of town" Ana nodded.

"They move the weapons to Los Angeles and then on sell them to someone else who uses the M136 in the robbery" She frowned. "Witnesses reported that the suspects were holding assault rifles with curved magazines though, not M16s?" I shrugged.

"Maybe a different buyer for different weapons" Laughton coughed to catch our attention.

"Nice theory but we still don't have a connection between your motorcycle gang and the missing suspects" Ana and I both nodded before I spoke.

"True, for that we need to get our hands on Cornelius and Clancy" Thomas spoke up from where he was sitting behind his desk, listening to us talk.

"I can't help you there, but I just remembered that there's a convenience store across the street that's been robbed a few times, they have camera's that cover the whole premises, I know one of them points towards the main gate here" We all exchanged quick glances before Laughton was on the phone again, directing his officers to obtain any available footage. An hour later, after some okay sandwiches from the commissary, we sat down to watch footage that showed a truck with the prominent Enterprise Truck rental logos on the sides drive in late at night, twenty two minutes later it exited again.

That saw deputies sent off to the truck rental place where they confirmed that the truck was rented by a woman, we thought it might have been Sue-Ellen Cornelius but it wasn't her, a check of the logs revealed it was her younger sister, Mary-Sue, turned out that she'd moved away from Huntsville a couple of years ago, now apparently resident in Los Angeles, which fitted with a LA drivers licence. The connections were developing but they weren't really gelling into anything solid, up until their mother, when questioned by Laughton's deputies, revealed that her younger daughter had taken up with a 'dead-beat biker from out west'. That gave us a connection which a quick call back to LA confirmed, the address on her California license was the same one as the LA chapter house of the Blood Brothers motorcycle club. Ana and I shared a smile; it looked like our trail was getting solid; one that led us back to LA and the hell away from here.

An hour later our trail was set in concrete, turns out the TSA had missed Sue-Ellen Cornelius and Warren Clancy getting on a flight from Huntsville to Chicago to connect through to Los Angeles but their counterparts in Chicago had pulled them off the plane and were holding them for us. Happy to be away from the Army and Huntsville, we'd grabbed a rental car back to Birmingham, updating Brenda on the road before collecting our clothes from the hotel and taking the next available flight to Chi-town.

It was late evening by the time we arrived and neither of us was in any mood to be stuffed around. Fortunately the Chief had called ahead and Chicago PD were more than happy to help out, looks like a Deputy Chief's rank does have some pull with other cops. We were greeted by a Detective Erin Lindsay who'd been asked to help us out.

Lindsay turned out to be attractive, smart and helpful, she met us at reception, took one look at us both, told us we looked like hell and needed coffee then guided us through to their break room, it was the typical swill that seems to be universal to police units everywhere but it was caffeine which helped us focus as we brought her up to speed. Lindsay sat and listened quietly, then asked if we had any info on the missing weapons coming her way; it was a good question but we were able to reassure her that everything we'd been able to put together said they'd gone to Los Angeles. She looked at us, nodded slowly then smiled.

"No offence, but from my perspective, better there than here, we have more than enough problems here without that sort of firepower ending up in the local gangers hands" I nodded.

"None taken, if the positions were reversed I'd feel the same way" Ana nodded.

Yeah, same here" We finished our coffee's and Lindsay was leading us out of the break room when a lean guy, all dark eyes and square jaw walked in, nodding at our escort before suddenly stopping, frowning at Ana. Aware of the scrutiny Ana paused, tipping her head as they regarded each other; finally the guy spoke.

"I know you from somewhere…" Ana nodded slowly, obviously thinking hard.

"You do look kinda familiar, Bureau maybe?" He shook his head.

"Nope, were you in the Army?" Ana nodded, suddenly all reserved, I remembered she'd copped a lot of flak about prosecuting the Abu Ghraib trials, maybe this guy was there. He suddenly held out his hand. "Jay Halstead, Rangers" Ana nodded and shook his hand as she spoke.

"Ana Romanov" Her face suddenly lit up in a smile.

"I remember you now! You were in that unit of Rangers who dug us out of a bad scrape in Bagdad" She looked round at Lindsay and I. "Our convoy got ambushed, a nasty one, we were pinned down, blocked in and taking casualties, the reaction force was about ten minutes away and we weren't sure we were going to last that long. Fortunately a Ranger unit was on its way back into the Green Zone by helicopter and heard the radio calls. They flew in low, dropped onto the roofs around us and turned the tables on the ambushers" She turned back to this Halstead guy and tipped her head respectfully. "They saved a lot of lives that day, including mine" He nodded.

"Glad to have been there. As I remember you and your unit bought us a lot of beers that night. Where are you now?" Ana waved my way.

"Bureau, working liaison with the LAPD, I'd like to introduce you to Jane Rizzoli, LAPD Major Crimes unit" He nodded and we shook hands, his eyes taking me in, evaluating me as he did as Ana continued. "We're here chasing after some suspects in a major arms smuggling ring. They fled Alabama where we'd chased them down, but got picked up here catching a connecting flight" Ana nodded at Erin. "Detective Lindsay here's been kind enough to look after us while we question them" He nodded.

"Yeah, that's my partner, she's one of the best" He smiled at her as I picked up a vibe, like they were closer than you'd expect, I shrugged, maybe they were just close partners, before he held out his hand again. "Good to see you again Ana" They shook and he turned to me, holding out his hand. "And to meet you too detective, enjoy Chicago" He turned to his partner. "I was looking for you, Voight wants me to run some 'eyes-only' intel over to the drug unit and I might be gone a while" She nodded.

"No problem" With a polite nod he was gone and Lindsay looked round.

"Jay doesn't talk all that much about the things he did over there, nice to hear one of the war stories, especially one with a happy ending" Ana smiled.

"Like I said, if it wasn't for him and his unit, I probably wouldn't be here" I nodded even though I wondered exactly what had happened. From what I'd learned Ana was a military cop but she seemed to have had a few too many close shaves on deployment, too many brushes with death, I knew of a couple of suicide attacks she'd survived, plus a car bombing, now this, it all just raised more questions than answers. I decided if her friend Gibbs ever did visit LA I'd try and look him up, see if I couldn't find out what had actually happened over there; Ana was my friend, I owed her at least that. Lindsay meanwhile was leading us through the building, chatting to Ana as I'd been thinking, before stopping in front of a door.

"We have them stewing in holding, which one do you want to see first?" I exchanged a glance with Ana and she nodded.

"The woman, Sue-Ellen Cornelius please" Lindsay nodded and opened the door to an interrogation room and told us she'd have Cornelius brought up. A couple of minutes later she walked in with a late-thirties woman, tawny blonde hair that needed a trim, a face that had seen a lot of sun, lots of lines round the eyes and a wide mouth that was probably easy-going but now clamped shut, presumably in fear and apprehension. Lindsay guided her to a seat then took up a place leaning against the wall behind her, watching her and us while staying silent, for which we were both grateful.

Sue-Ellen Cornelius was an obvious mess so Ana went all big bad fed on her while I got to play the good cop. We set up a good show, Ana's over the top threats to send her to the military prison at Leavenworth to rot scared her silly, allowing me to pick a fight with Ana in turn, the screaming match ending with Ana storming from the room seemingly looking for a way to send her to Guantanamo that night. That allowed Cornelius to see I was on her side and after a plea for her to help me help her she basically spilled the beans on everything.

It turned out that her boyfriend Warren Clancy had a brother who was a member of the Birmingham chapter of the Blood Brothers and through him they'd met the leader of the Los Angeles chapter, he'd visited a year or so earlier when they'd been scouting for a location for the Blood Brother's annual get-together. The LA guy, a Karl Cohagen, had ended up hitting it off with Cornelius' sister Mary-Sue and she'd gone back with him to Los Angeles when he left.

During the annual gathering, Cohagen had heard that Cornelius and Clancy were in some money difficulties and offered them each a couple of thousand dollars for their help in getting the weapons out; while the money had helped them cover their debts, Cornelius admitted that she was scared of Cohagen, plus her sister had fully fallen in with the Blood Brothers, becoming Cohagen's 'bitch', a woman without her own bike. She now even had biker tats, including one saying she was Cohagen's property, apparently the relationship was a really abusive one, violence, drugs and alcohol, you name it, to the point that she was concerned for her sister's long-term safety.

Given all that Sue-Ellen felt she couldn't really say no to him no matter her misgivings so Clancy had indeed opened the gates and let the bikers in to collect the weapons while she had altered the manifest. All in all a quick and relatively smooth transaction that would have gone undetected but for whoever using the M136 dumping it at the scene and allowing the serial number to be tracked. If they'd taken it with them there was no way we'd have tracked it back to Huntsville, given all her careful work to make the weapon's disappearance all look above board.

I leaned on Cornelius, getting her to tell us everything she knew, in particular did the Blood Brothers know that we'd tracked down the theft and knew they had the weapons? To my relief her response was that they'd fled as soon as Troy rang. His call, following so soon after Ana's call had made her realise the game was up and they'd run; they were going to fly to California and ask Cohagen for help to escape, they'd already decided to not tell him first in case he refused them help, whereas if they were there on the spot they thought he would be more likely to help. I had my doubts about that but internally shrugged, their reasoning meant that the Blood Brothers weren't aware that we were on to them which gave us the advantage.

I played on her evident fears for her sister with the Blood Brothers, telling her that given the weapons involved and the chance of trouble we'd be forced to storm the Blood Brothers compound with full SWAT support, plenty of chances for people to get hurt, in particular her sister. That had done it; she'd tearfully confessed that SWAT wasn't needed, that the weapons had already been sold. Apparently Cohagen had told them that they already had buyers for the weapons as soon as they got them to Los Angeles. In the end Sue-Ellen told me everything she had in return for a promise that I'd do whatever I could to protect her sister. I'd told her I couldn't get her off any charges, but I'd do my damndest to make sure that Mary-Sue Cornelius was kept as far away from Cohagen and his influence as possible.

By the end of it all I knew we didn't need to talk to Clancy, in fact keeping him mum was the better bet; if we leaned on him he might try and contact Cohagen, so they could both stew in holding while Huntsville Police arranged for their extradition warrant, though I expected they'd be needed in LA eventually for the trial when we wound this up..

A few minutes later the three of us were back in the break room grabbing another cup of coffee as Lindsay nodded respectfully.

"Nice job in there Detective, she pretty much gave up everything" I smiled tiredly, to be honest I was pretty wasted and starting to feel it, plus we had another flight home in front of us.

"Thanks, but it was pretty obvious that she was out of her depth, it was just a matter of putting her on the spot, when it became obvious her sister was involved that gave me the leverage" She nodded.

"Still, you played her well" She looked over at Ana, who'd heard everything from the other side of the mirror after she'd 'stormed' out of the room. "Your bad cop routine wasn't too shabby either, she was scared stiff by the time you'd finished" Ana nodded in acknowledgement.

"Jane's pretty good with the interrogation side, I just needed to play the big bad fed and shake her up, after that Jane could use that to her advantage" Lindsay nodded.

"You guys work well together, you must have done this before plenty of times" I glanced across at Ana, sharing a quiet smile before she spoke.

"Actually no, we're friends but not actual partners" Lindsay looked surprised.

"Really, you guys work really well together, that's why I thought you were" I shrugged.

"Ana here's one of my two best friends, she's got my back and I've got hers, it's the same with my other friend Liv back in New York, it's a cop thing. We've never been partners but we know each other well enough that I'd trust her with anything" She suddenly got a strange expression on her face as she looked at me.

"Your cop friend in New York; did you say her name's Liv, is that short for Olivia?" I nodded slowly.

"Yeah, Olivia Benson; works special victims back there, why" Her smile suddenly blossomed.

"It's a small world, we did a joint case with them a while back, you're right she's good people. Hell she even got on with our boss, Hank Voight, which is saying something" I smiled back at her, as did Ana, it really was a small world.

"We go back a couple of years, met through our other halves actually" I looked over at Ana. "Ana and I met almost a year ago when I moved over from Boston to Los Angeles on a temporary gig, turned out it was the right move and we made it permanent" She nodded slowly.

"Please give Liv my regards when you see her next" We both nodded as I spoke.

"We will" Ana meanwhile had stood and held her hand out.

"Erin, we've got to run if we're going to catch the red-eye to LA, thanks for all your help, it's really appreciated" Erin stood and they shook as I finished my coffee and stood, even as Erin spoke.

"Glad to help out, I expect we'll get an extradition request from Alabama for them both in a day or so" I nodded.

"Very likely, they have them for the weapons theft; we'll need them in due course when we wrap up the current case but for now they're the Huntsville cops collar" I held out my hand and we shook. "Like Ana said, thanks for all the help" We shook and she guided us out to reception and arranged for a white and blue patrol car to run us out to the airport, getting another round of thanks from us both. She waved our thanks off.

"Roman here can get you out to the airport faster than any cab, plus he can park you right near the terminal without any problem, O'Hare's traffic cops have a well earned evil reputation, this way you won't have any problems"

We thanked her again and took our leave, turns out Lindsay was as good as her word, Officer Roman got us there in plenty of time to get our bags booked on the late night flight back home. All in all, the trip had gone as well as we could have hoped. Ana called Brenda and brought her up to speed, while I got to ring Maura to tell her we'd be home late tonight.

We chatted for a bit, about her day and a little bit about mine, needless to say she was overjoyed that we'd be home tonight, no matter how late. She told me Natalie was at their place again tonight and for us both to come on home, they'd be waiting for us and they couldn't wait to see us again. I ended the call smiling; wrapping up our end of the investigation was good, but heading home to Maura, that was a feeling you couldn't beat.

I passed the message on to Ana once she'd finished briefing the Chief, getting a tired but happy smile in return, before we settled in to await our boarding call, neither of us could wait to get home.


	58. Chapter 58

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**58 Clashing colours**

Brenda's viewpoint

I have to say, Jane and Ana were awfully impressive; they'd always seemed good individually but the pair of them together had turned in exceptional results, fully justifying my decision to send them down to Alabama.

Sitting in my office running me through their investigation they'd played down their difficulties but reading between the lines it was obvious they'd run into all sorts of roadblocks in their travels but had, characteristically, refused to let anything or anyone stand in their way. The results were easy to see though, the source of the weapons theft uncovered plus a definitive link to the pipeline that had delivered the weapons here to Los Angeles. It was up to us now to take that information and turn it into tangible results.

We'd moved quickly and under the circumstances quietly; we'd immediately put the Blood Brother's chapter house under surveillance and tracked their leader, Karl 'Chopper' Cohagen, back to his home that evening. We could raid the Blood Brothers chapter house, but the place was heavily fortified and a raid could end in either a siege or potentially a blood bath if they chose to fight back to defend their turf, especially if they still had some of that military firepower at their disposal, not that Peter Collins' SWAT people weren't willing to go in if needed but I saw that as the absolutely last option. Instead we'd gone for the subtle option, with Cohagen quietly pulled over this morning on the way from his home to the chapter house, his Harley had been boxed in by a pair of motorcycle police before he was brought in for questioning in a black and white.

So it came to pass that I now had the leader of the LA Chapter of the Blood Brothers stewing in my interrogation room and a collection of people waiting to join me in there. Jane obviously, given her involvement in the case and Anastasia of course, representing the Federal Government; which didn't include the military apparently as I had a member of the local branch of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, a Kensi Blye, standing there next to her. She was dark-haired and dark-eyed, very intense, a bit like Jane and Mikki like that. Blye had looked me straight in the eye, smiled and shook my hand, telling me she was here to watch and learn and that it was my case, she wasn't here to interfere. I'd been shocked, first Ana, now her, if they kept this up I might start having to start entertaining a better opinion of Federal agencies in general.

Thanking her, I'd nodded to the others and led them into my interrogation room to where the leader of the Blood Brother's LA chapter, one Karl 'Chopper' Cohagen waited under the watchful gaze of Sanchez and Gabriel, togather with his lawyer, a criminal lawyer named Doug Kenny, I hadn't met him before but his type was all too familiar, people like him put the 'criminal' in 'criminal lawyer'. I walked in and took a seat, tossing Cohagen's file on the desk in front of me as Ana took the seat next to me while Blye and Jane stood back against the walls on each side of the room, facing each other across the table. Kenny was immediately on the front foot.

"Chief Johnson, is it really necessary to have so many cops in here, this is attempted harassment and intimidation of my client. I mean six of you is completely excessive" I shrugged.

"Given your client's reputation I think it would take a lot more than a few officers here to cause him any discomfort..." I raised my eyebrow at him and smiled. "...however far be it for me to attempt to intimidate you Mr Kenny" I looked up and nodded at David and Julio. "Thank you detectives, that'll be all for the moment, we wouldn't want you intimidating anyone now would we"

They both grinned and nodded, given Jane and Anastasia's reputations they knew I was in good hands, even so I also knew they wouldn't be far away either, they took their self-appointed role as my protectors seriously, even though I'd overheard them once discuss how it was good that Jane was now on the team and Ana was often around to help out. I'd smiled and carefully left before they knew I was there but I felt the same way to be honest.

As the door closed behind them both I turned back and regarded both men, Kenny was trying for self important and failing while Cohagen was looking bored but I could see some curiosity in his eyes, no doubt wondering which of his numerous sins had caught up with him this time. I flipped the file open and appeared to peruse it, though I'd long ago committed it to memory, while Cohagen shifted in his seat, rattling the handcuffs that kept his hands secured to the floor by a stout chain.

Cohagen had a rap sheet longer than my arm, starting with vandalism and petty theft charges as an early teen, escalating to assault, mugging, vehicle theft and armed robbery as he'd got older. He'd apparently fallen in with the Blood Brothers during one of his many stints in prison, wasting no time in joining them once he'd got out. His record since then was a little less varied and though he'd been a suspect in a range of crimes few of them had stuck. He'd risen through the ranks of the Chapter, according to one rumour he'd ascended to leadership of the gang a few years back when the previous leader had died in a brawl with a rival bike gang. Apparently he'd somehow captured the guy who'd killed his predecessor and then got his hand on an old Korean War-era flamethrower, god knows where from, using it to burn the man to death in front of his assembled fellow Blood Brothers. After that no one dared stand in his way as he claimed leadership of the gang's LA Chapter.

Under his control the Blood Brothers were believed to have become significant players in the car rebirthing and parts industries here in California plus they dealt in drugs, prostitution, loan sharking and, most pertinent to our case, gun running. Word on the street was that the Blood Brothers were good for military grade weaponry, if you had the money, they had the guns. Shaking my head a little theatrically I looked up at Cohagen.

"My Mr Cohagen, you certainly have a reputation" I gestured to the file. "Your record practically speaks for itself" He shrugged but said nothing as Kenny shoved himself into the conversation.

"What exactly are you trying to charge my client with Johnson?" I looked over at him and let my eyes narrow.

"That's Chief Johnson to you Mister Kenny, you may not care for me and I certainly don't care for you at all, but in my building you will treat me with the courtesy expected or I will take great pleasure in having you tossed out of the building on your ear" He flushed at the rebuke then went to speak, but I cut him off. "Do you understand me Mister Kenny?" He opened his mouth and went the stupid route.

"You wouldn't dare" I smiled as pleasantly as could.

"Why Mister Kenny, many people have made that exact same statement to me in here, only to be unpleasantly surprised when they find out exactly what I would dare to do. I strongly urge that you do not try my patience, that is unless you wish to see how high you bounce when Detective Rizzoli here throws you out the Parker Center's front doors" Jane obligingly smiled happily at the thought, something Kenny didn't miss. "I asked you if you understood me Mister Kenny" He sat back, obviously uncomfortable.

"Yeah, whatever, you still haven't told us what you want to charge my client with" At my raised eyebrow he fidgeted, then spoke. "Chief Johnson" I nodded.

"We have a significant list of charges awaiting Mister Cohagen's date with the judge, including grand theft, transport of stolen goods, sale of those self-same stolen goods, weapons trafficking and accessory before the fact to armed robbery and murder" I shrugged carelessly. "And all that's before we get to the federal charges. Agent Romanov here can talk to those" I glanced her way and she picked up the thread.

"Theft of federal property, illegal transport of weaponry across state lines, bribery of a federal employee, illegal entry to a Federal facility, plus a whole range of charges relating to your sale of those weapons" She smiled. "They should be a nice addendum to the State charges you'll be facing" Cohagen leaned forward.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I folded my hands together on top of his file as I leaned forward, smiling.

"Mister Cohagen, we have placed you at the scene of the theft of a range of military weapons from a facility in Huntsville Alabama. We know you paid employees there to assist you in the theft of those weapons, that you transported the weapons to Los Angeles…" We'd already pulled the manifest and discovered the truck had been returned to a depot here in Los Angeles. "…and that you then sold those weapons to a number of buyers, including one group who bought those stolen rocket launchers and used one in a robbery of an armoured car that left three people dead" I shrugged. "All that adds up to a very long jail sentence, even if you somehow avoid a death sentence for your part in the armoured car robbery" He leaned forward angrily.

"I had nothing to do with that!" I just shook my head slowly as Kenny pulled him back into his seat and muttered something to him, probably trying to tell him to stay quiet, though I couldn't imagine someone like Cohagen having a lot of respect for a lightweight like Kenny.

"Please don't insult my intelligence Mister Cohagen. We traced the weapons here, didn't we Agent Blye?" I glanced her way and she nodded.

"Sure Chief" She moved a little closer to the table. "The weapon used was tracked back to the batch of weapons you stole" She smiled unpleasantly as she contemplated Cohagen like the scum he was. "One consistent thing about the military, if it moves they salute it, if it doesn't they paint it, but absolutely everything has to have a serial number" She looked down at Cohagen. "Funny how you overlooked that, but that sixteen digit series of numbers and letters on that M136 will send you away for life with no parole" Kenny jumped in.

"You're presupposing my client's guilt, you'll need more than a list of circumstantial evidence otherwise you're wasting our time" I ignored him and looked at Cohagen.

"Mister Cohagen, we have more than enough evidence to convict you, after your accomplices rolled over on you that is" I smiled confidently, that little morsel of information helping to mess with his head. "We know the dates, the times, how you got in back in Huntsville, how much you paid to do so, who rented the truck in Huntsville and who returned it here in LA, pretty much everything about the theft" He shrugged and went for nonchalant.

"Seems like you know everything, so why sit here and talk to me if you have everything you need?" Kenny leaned over and told him to say nothing, getting a slight smile from Cohagen. He was a hard son of a bitch, I had to give him that, he knew we had enough to send him back to jail, what he was wondering was why we were talking to him. Let's see if we could get him to deal, it wouldn't be easy but still, breaking people like him was my job.

"We want to know who bought those weapons, not just the rockets, but the heavy machine guns, the assault rifles and the pistols, we want their names" Kenny jumped in.

"You're on a fishing expedition Chief Johnson, my client has nothing to say" I ignored him and spoke directly to Cohagen.

"If you were to assist us then perhaps the District Attorney might be prepared to either drop some charges or go softer on them" Cohagen stared at me for a long moment and then shook his head.

"Why would I give you the time of day bitch" He sneered at me. "You drag me in here, tell me you're gonna send me to death row then ask for my help, it'll be a long cold day in hell before I give you anything" Kenny puffed himself up on the heels of Cohagen's words.

"You heard my client, we have nothing farther to add" I nodded, as if I was considering his words then shrugged as I looked back at Cohagen, sitting forward to lean on my forearms as I did.

"Mister Cohagen, at the moment we're just interested in you and whoever else helped you steal and transport those weapons. Of course if you don't want to cooperate we'd have to assume that meant that every member of the Blood Brothers was somehow involved. That would be a very bad thing for you and everyone else in your Chapter"

"Blood Brothers stick together, nothing's thicker than blood" I nodded slowly.

"A nice little slogan, no doubt about that, why I'm sure it sounds all very reassuring when you repeat it over and over when you're all half drunk on cheap booze but let's look at the facts here" I sat back. "You are going to jail, for a very, very long time Mister Cohagen. If I want it you will not get out before you're 80 if you're lucky, when the only thing you'll be riding will be a wheelchair. On the other hand if you're unlucky California starts executing death row inmates again and you get an appointment with a man with a syringe" He smiled at me, calling my bluff.

"Like that's gonna happen, no one's been executed for years" I nodded.

"Almost ten years in fact. 2006 was the last one, but there are over 700 people on death row, waiting to die in prison, either from old age or because the state finally starts executing people who so dearly deserve it" I smiled. "People like you" He surged forward before the cuffs stopped him

"Fuck you bitch!" I shook my head.

"I'm afraid that like many other things, that's something else you'll have to learn to do without" I shrugged, goading him. "No conjugal visits from Mary-Sue on death row in San Quentin, mind you there's sure to be plenty of people willing to make you their bottom" I smiled happily, trying to push his buttons. "That is if you swing that way" I made a production of pulling a face as I seemed to think it over. "On the other hand, I don't suppose it matters, you'll end up like that one way or the other" The look he gave me was filthy, he'd have killed me if he could get his hands on me even as Kenny was trying to make himself heard.

"I protest this, this is harassment pure and simple and I won't stand for it" I turned my head and looked at him, letting my voice chill.

"Then leave" Leaving him floundering I turned back to Cohagen and stared at him. "Well Mister Cohagen, cooperate and do long-term time with the chance to get out, or don't and die in jail" I shrugged again. "Three people died during the armored car robbery that you facilitated with the sale of that weapon, which makes you an accessory to murder before the fact" I smiled as pleasantly as I could. "While you will be going to jail the nature and length of your sentence is really all up to you" Cohagen folded his arms as best he could and sat back.

"I got nothing to say to you" He tipped his head at Kenny. "We'll see you in court" Kenny made a production of standing.

"You heard my client, we have nothing further to say, this interrogation is over" I didn't waste time looking at him, locking gaze with Cohagen.

"Look Mister Cohagen, I get it, you're a tough guy and you think you're protecting the rest of the Blood Brothers. I'm telling you right now that in fact you are making things so much worse for them, you have no idea of the consequences of your actions on them" He stared at me, saying nothing, even as Kenny bleated again. I just waved my hand at him as I stared at Cohagen. "If you won't help us for your sake, consider them" He stared back at me then glanced up at Kenny and nodded once at the chair before Kenny dropped like a stone into it, they exchanged a look before Kenny nodded and leaned forward.

"What exactly are you getting at Chief Johnson?" I ignored him and stayed focused on Cohagen.

"You've been part of the Blood Brothers since they took you in and gave you a life, a focus. Everything you've done has been to make them grow and be strong, that's admirable in its own way I guess. Unfortunately your not helping me is going to bring a world of hurt down on them, by the time this is finished they'll be broken and dispersed, your members will probably end up taking up other clubs colours because there won't be a Blood Brother's chapter here in Los Angeles by the time this is over"

"Bullshit!" I knew that attacking the thing he identified most closely with would get a reaction. "That's fucking bullshit, just like you, you fucking bitch" His chains rattled agitatedly. Jane, Ana and Kensi all regarded him impassively; the effect was a little unnerving, just as I'd hoped. I leaned forward, showing him that he didn't intimidate me, for a man like him, used to being the alpha male in a pack of similar males, facing someone who didn't back down, especially a woman, would be pressing all his buttons. Sure enough he kept blustering. "If I were you, I'd watch your back you cunt, you come after the Blood Brothers, the Blood Brothers'll come after you" Kenny suddenly interjected, trying to paper over what he'd said.

"I'm sure that what my client meant was that we have our own legal recourse's…" He trailed off as I held up my hand.

"Oh I understand perfectly what Mister Cohagen means, it's not the first time I've been threatened and I doubt it'll be the last" I shook my head slowly then smiled.

"As I understand it, in motorcycle gangs it's all about the chapter and the club, am I right?" He said nothing so I pressed on. "You wear colours don't you?" He shrugged then spoke up, his voice surly.

"Course I do" I nodded.

"Well so do I Mister Cohagen, so do I" He barked out a laugh.

"Yeah right, what? The old woman's knitting club" he laughed for a moment, enjoying the joke, right up until I reached down and pulled my badge out of my bag, slamming it down on the desk.

"These are my colours Mister Cohagen and my gang is a damned site bigger and tougher and deadlier than anything your people can comprehend" Jane stepped forward to slam her badge down next to mine. Cohagen looked up, contempt in his eyes.

"The Blood Brothers aren't just here bitch, you take us on you take on chapters right across the country" He was about to say something further when Anastasia leaned forward.

"Before you start talking about how you're bigger than any one chapter, let me tell you, this is bigger than one agency" She slapped her ID down on the table next to ours. "These are my colours you sorry son of a bitch"

Kensi Blye stepped forward and her badge joined ours on the desk.

"These are my colours too, so if you think you and your little band of punks are taking on the US Military, you're even dumber than I thought" I smirked just a little at his slightly uncertain expression before pushing him.

"Now we've established that you and your little band of bikers aren't going to cause us much trouble let's stop the posturing Mister Cohagen. At the moment it's just you and your accomplices here and back in Alabama involved, perhaps one or two others in your little club, I charge them and you, and your fellow Blood Brothers walk free. If however you won't cooperate then I'll be forced to dig deep into everything about your club's activities, everything"

"So fucking what?" I let my voice turn playful and teasing, letting him know I had the upper hand.

"Oh Mister Cohagen, you have no idea of the level of pain I will bring down upon you. Every time one of your gang members rides out onto a public street there'll be an LAPD or Sheriff's car waiting for them. Road-worthiness checks can take hours you know" I leaned back, letting him see the casual insolence in every move, I wanted him to realise I had him and that he needed me, not the other way round.

"Then there are all those ongoing fire, health and safety checks of that building of yours. I've no doubt that an in-depth examination will find plenty of problems, unauthorised building modifications, that sort of thing, don't you worry 'bout that" I made sure I smiled as I spoke, anything to keep him rattled. "Of course that's just the problems I can cause, that's before the Federal Government starts taking a close look at you" I turned my head slightly. "Isn't that right Agent Romanov?"

"Yes it is Chief, we'll need to look to see that any of their activities may fall under the racketeering statutes, plus the interstate carriage of stolen firearms, the ATF will want to look into that too. The Treasury will be interested in any potential money laundering, then there's potential drug smuggling, lots of people are interested in that" Jane suddenly spoke up from where she was leaning against the wall to my right, building on something Ana had idly speculated about as she and Jane had briefed me on what happened while they were in Alabama.

"Plus given that the weapons had to transported here to LA somehow, we'd need to investigate every Blood Brother chapter from Alabama to California" I grabbed that good idea and ran with it, turning to face Jane with a sudden look of surprise, though I could see the amusement in her eyes.

'Why that's exactly right Detective" I spun back to face Cohagen. "We'll have to request an investigation of them all won't we Mr Cohagen? Every last chapter of the Blood Brothers will suddenly be the focus of a weapons smuggling investigation by state and city police" Ana nodded.

"And of course that'll involve the whole alphabet soup of Federal agencies, the FBI, ATF, DHS, everyone in Washington will want a piece of this" I nodded at her 'revelation', pleased I was working with people so quick on the uptake, speaking of which, I glanced to my left...

"And that's without the military investigation into the loss of weapons and their transport to and use in Los Angeles. Isn't that right Agent Blye?" Her voice was crisp and assured, happily backing me up.

"Absolutely correct there Chief, I can guarantee a full and complete investigation into every aspect of this case, one that will take a very long time to complete" I smiled.

"Would you say months Agent Blye?" She nodded, all serious like.

"At least Chief, probably longer if we want to do it right, which of course we do" I nodded and glanced at Ana.

"And you Agent Romanov?"

"Definitely longer Chief, this will go on for as long as it takes" She paused and looked straight at Cohagen. "Whatever it takes" I nodded and turned my attention back to Cohagen.

"You see Mr Cohagen, trust me, we can drop a whole world of pain on your heads" Smiling a little nastily I leaned forward, lowering my voice just a little so Cohagen had to lean forward slightly to hear me. "As you can see Mister Cohagen, there are all sorts of problems we can cause for you" Cohagen leaned forward a little in turn and spoke, his voice low and bitter.

"Bitch, I'll see you in hell" I smiled and sat back, letting him see how unfazed I was by his threats.

"Very possibly Mister Cohagen, if you can walk there" I glanced up at Jane and she shrugged.

"Yeah, given your bikes appear to have been used in a cross-border military weapon smuggling scheme, we'll probably have to seize them, all of them, for testing, maybe even as evidence" Ana smiled and nodded.

"And if we tie them to any criminal activities, we will confiscate them as derived from the proceeds of crime and I will personally watch each and every one of them crushed flat, before they get recycled into soda cans" Cohagen's eyes widened and his nostrils flared as we threatened the one thing that made people like him who they were, what made them different, that was the core part of their self worth, threatening their bikes was a form of emasculation in a way.

"You wouldn't dare!" I just smiled softly, keeping my voice quiet, knowing that was even more effective than if I'd shouted, it showed who had the upper hand, he could shout all he wanted, but I'd win in the end.

"Oh that's a very foolish thing to say to people like us Mister Cohagen. Do you really want to test me Mister Cohagen? I assure you, you will lose" I leaned back and tilted my head as I regarded him. "The choice is yours Mister Cohagen, you and a few of your associates or we take down the Blood Brothers, all of them. By the time we're finished with them there won't be enough of them to form...what did you call it?" I paused, making it look like I was trying to remember something, before I smiled happily at him, rubbing the salt in. "Oh that's right, an old women's knitting club"

I pushed a yellow pad and a pen across the table at him.

"Names Mister Cohagen, provide me with the names of the people involved in the theft, transport and sale of those weapons, including the customers, or we take you all down" I tapped the paper. "Those names or we take down every Blood brothers chapter across a dozen states. Your call" I watched him closely as he stared at the paper, trying to make that decision. I sat still, willing myself to stay silent. He looked up at me and spoke.

"What's in it for me?" I sat back, knowing I'd won but not showing it.

"I take the accessory after the fact murder charge off the table; that means no death row. It also means you live longer, how long exactly do you think you'd survive in prison if the Blood Brothers knew you could have prevented dozens of State and federal agencies trying to pull them apart, all to try and save your own skin" I tapped the pad again. "Sometimes being a leader means having to take the rap for the good of the people you lead" I stared into his eyes across the table. "You wanted to be in charge Mister Cohagen, that means you're responsible for what you did" He stared back at me for a few seconds before I hammered the last nail in. "It's what's good for you or what's good for the Blood Brother's, it's your call. But to be their leader, you have to demonstrate leadership when everything's on the line"

He looked away for a few seconds as I could see him wrestle with the decision, holding myself impassive as he thought, before he reached out and picked up the pen and started writing.


	59. Chapter 59

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**59 Pool Party Wrap Up**

Maura's viewpoint

Our Saturday was drawing to a close in the best possible way, a relaxed, lazy lunch with friends followed by an even lazier afternoon spent in and around the pool, joined by Natalie and Anastasia and Brenda and Sharon we were sprawled out on sun lounges as we shared all sorts of stories. Anastasia was just finishing up the tale of yesterday's arrest of the Barrio Boys, the street gang that had bought the stolen military weapons from the Blood Brothers and conducted the armoured car robbery.

"So Tactical Response kicks in the doors and fortunately no one does anything stupid, an assault rifle pointed at the face tends to be good for that. Anyway they all end up in a line-up as we look for the guy in charge, a guy called Stoner. He's not there but his jacked-up Impala's parked outside and we know from surveillance he has to be in there, so we do another sweep, we find some of the missing weapons but no sign of Stoner so Jane here..." She waved our way where I was sitting on a sun lounge between Jane's legs, leaning back against her with her strong arms around me, a position I felt particularly comfortable in. "...decides that she should piss off the gangers, see if they let something slip" I felt Jane shrug behind me before she spoke.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time" Anastasia ignored Jane's editorialising and continued.

"So naturally she picked the biggest guy there, pulls out his wallet and discovers his name's Maurice Freeman, so she starts needling him hard, tells him Maurice sounds like a florist or interior decorator's name, not a real ganger. She even starts mangling his name, calling him 'more-eece' just to get a reaction" I smiled as Jane spoke, the amusement easily heard in her voice.

"It worked" Anastasia nodded.

"Yeah it did, the guy was getting more and more pissed, so eventually he decides to take a swing at her, needless to say it didn't end well for him, he ended up flying through the air and landing at that NCIS agent's feet. He looked back at Jane and told her he was..." Her voiced changed, becoming deeper, "...gonna fuck you up good bitch" She grinned even as I glanced back at Jane, getting a grin in return. "At about that point Kensi Blye, the NCIS agent, looked down at him and said 'with what' and punted him back across the room with a kick to the balls" She shook her head. "He just rolled into a small ball and moaned as the rest of the Barrio Boys stared at Jane and Kensi, scared shitless" Sharon shook her head, even as she smiled.

"Let's hope none of them file a complaint" Jane waved her concerns away.

"Blye's a Federal Agent, so it's not our problem" Sharon nodded as Brenda nudged her with her elbow from where they were sitting side by side.

"Good point there sweetie, not a LAPD matter" Sharon waggled her hand in a 'so-so' gesture even as Ana nodded and ploughed on.

"At that point, all the gangers are staring at where 'more-eece' is curled up in a whimpering ball when Jane looks around and says anyone else want to take a swing at me? Needless to say no one's interested so she pulls the next biggest guy out of the line up and starts questioning him about Stoner. He's trying hard to stay quiet but we spot his eyes keep looking over towards another room" Jane took up the tale, even as she pulled me a little tighter back against her.

"I could see him glancing that way almost involuntarily, so we shoved him back into the line up and went off to check it out, turns out it was Stoner's office, if you could call it that. We had a quick look around but didn't see nothing there" She stopped as I gave her a soft slap on the thigh as I looked round at her. "What?" I tilted my head to regard her.

"The correct terminology is that you did not see anything Jane. It is not possible for you to 'not see nothing' as you put it" I got a mock frown in return.

"Everyone knew what I meant" I raised my eyebrow at her deliberate obtuseness.

"That may be correct darling, but it does not excuse poor grammar" She smiled at me, all teasing grin.

"I don't know why I put up with your abuse" I matched her grin with one of my own.

"Because you love me" Arguing with that was futile so Jane ignored it and took up the story.

"So we check out the room but we 'did not see anything'..." She raised her eyebrow at me but I simply gave her an indulgent smile. "...and were about to move on when we spotted a waist high book case by the wall. The top two shelves were full of bike and gun and rap mags, but the bottom two were filled with neatly stacked books" Ana nodded as she cut in.

"Yeah, too neat, plus they were all the classics, Ulysses, A Tale of Two Cities, Catcher in the Rye, even The Iliad for gods sake, I doubt most of the Barrio Boys could pronounce it, let alone read it. Anyway Jane spotted it and waved me over and when we get up close we could see they were fake, wallpaper glued there to look like it was full of books" Brenda, who'd obviously heard the story, nodded our way and smiled.

"Good observational skills Jane" She shrugged.

"It just looked too neat, the rest of the room was a dump, but that was too neat, it kinda stood out" Ana smiled and continued with the story.

"Anyway we check the ends and one end has what looks like a seam that corresponds to the bottom two shelves. So we bang on it and tell Stoner we know he's in there, but silence, he's playing it cool. So Jane says if we don't hear anything she's gonna put a bullet through it just to be sure. Still nothing, Stoner's probably thinking we're bluffing, right up till Jane racks the action of her Glock, I'm pretty sure that's when he wet himself cause next thing you know he's yelling and banging and the hatch at the end of the bookcase pops open" There were chuckles all round as I smiled at the imagery as Jane took up the story again.

"Unfortunately, he can't get out, he's put weight on since he first made that bolt hole, somehow he managed to get in but now he can't get out; in the end Ana and I have to grab a foot each and drag him out feet first" Sharon smiled.

"It's a good thing you found him then, if you had arrested everyone else and left he would have been stuck there" Jane and Ana both grinned before Jane shook her head.

"That's not what he thought at the time, between us we dragged him out of that room and into the room full of his friends by the ankles, plus he'd wet himself so he left a trail of that behind him, let's just say he wasn't particularly happy about it" Anastasia nodded.

"Yep, got very, very inventive with his threats, mostly out of shame, we'd made him look like a pussy in front of his fellow gangers, he wasn't happy about it, at all"

"Why did they want all those military weapons?" It was Natalie. "I understand the rocket launchers, given how effective they were against the armoured cars, plus they had one of their people working inside the armoured car company feeding them the routes and timings, but why did they need the other stuff though?" Brenda shrugged.

"The Barrio Boys may have been a street gang but no one could accuse them of not having ambition" She shook her head. "It seems they had a number of beefs with other local gangs and were looking for something to give them an edge. As it turns out a number of their members had served in the army and they liked the idea of applying the US Army's philosophy of 'peace through superior firepower' to all their problems" Anastasia interrupted her from the other lounge.

"Absolutely nothing wrong with that idea. Victory through overwhelming localised firepower superiority" Jane laughed.

"Says the ex-army vet" Brenda just smiled tolerantly and continued.

"That philosophy, however questionable it may be, eventually led the Boys to the Blood Brothers, they told them what they wanted, agreed a price and the bikers had gone shopping. Once the stolen weapons made their way to LA the Barrio Boys bought the pistols and the M136s immediately and recently purchased the M16s and the M2 machine guns, no doubt with the proceeds of their armoured car job"

"But why?" It was Natalie again. "From what Ana's told me they already had assault rifles, why did they need even more firepower?" Brenda took a sip from her drink then answered.

"Apparently they were planning on ambushing the hangouts of several rival gangs, basically they were going to drive up in modified SUV's and hose the properties down with the 50 Cal machine guns while the rockets were going to be used for more robberies" Brenda shrugged. "In fact Cohagen said that Stoner, the Barrio Brothers leader Jane and Ana mentioned, he'd even asked if they could supply body armour and claymore mines. Like I said, they thought big" Ana nodded.

"Fortunately, we did a search of all the top Barrio Boy's places and got nothing so we widened the search, we ended up turning the weapon's up at Stoner's parent's place, they knew all about it apparently, a neighbour even saw Stoner and his father digging the hole in the backyard and later filling it in again, so they got arrested as accessories after the fact" Natalie rolled her eyes, her voice teasing.

"The family that does crime together does the time together?" Ana nodded.

"Something like that, hence we weren't his favourite people when we brought the whole mess down around their ears" Jane nodded.

"And so the threats" Natalie looked over at Jane then to Anastasia sitting next to her.

"I know it's an occupational hazard of the job but I sometimes worry about all those threats" I felt Jane give me a little reassuring squeeze before she spoke.

"Yeah, but pretty much every perp every arrested makes threats. I think my first one was when I gave someone my first traffic citation, they told me they'd have my job for it" She shrugged. "The threats may change but the reality is most of its hot air" Sharon grinned as well.

"My weirdest death threat was a little old lady back in Philadelphia, she looked like she wouldn't hurt a fly, but we worked out she was actually poisoning other people in her nursing home and stealing their petty cash. We think she killed four people, all for less than three hundred dollars in total" At our appalled looks she shrugged. "We went back and looked into her past and found links to maybe a dozen poisonings over the previous two decades, including possibly her second husband, before she ended up in the nursing home. Apparently she was just carrying on with her old ways on a captive, unsuspecting audience" Brenda looked at Sharon, a stunned look on her face.

"So what did she threaten you with?"

"Oh, that she'd get to me somehow, poison me" She smiled. "I told her the most likely way she was going to ever hurt me was run over my toe with her wheelchair on the way to booking" We all smiled at the imagery before Anastasia spoke up.

"My most inventive was from a tank driver, I busted him for drug possession and dealing to other soldiers, as I did the collar he threatened me that he'd run me over with his tank. I just shrugged, told him that in that case I'd charge him with unauthorised use of government property and dangerous driving but that I was adding insubordination and threatening a superior officer to his charge sheet and that maybe in the future he'd think first and shoot his mouth off later" Brenda sighed wistfully.

"I wish I could add those charges to the rap sheet every time a suspect's threatened me" She smiled. "It might not add much to the time served, not compared to murder and such, but it'd make me feel so much better"

There was laughter all round at that quip before the afternoon heat drove us back into the pool to cool down, Jane actually picking me up bodily and walking into the pool before carefully lowering me into the water, conscious that I'd asked her to not get my newly-styled hair wet. For all her tomboyish ways she can be very thoughtful when she wishes to, mostly for Alexandra, Natalie and I. Accordingly I rewarded her kindness with a long make-out session backed up against the wall of the pool, something we both enjoyed immensely, before she drifted off to engage in a spirited wresting match with Anastasia that left them both tired out.

The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming, gamboling and generally enjoying the sort of afternoon that makes all the negative elements of our lives fade away. Really the only thing that would make this afternoon better would be having Alex and Olivia here with us. Though we saw each other as often as possible, the distance between New York and Los Angeles at times weighed heavily upon us all. On the other hand, the occasions we did visit made our times together even more important to everyone, we spent those times determined to have as much fun as possible together.

I had just wandered out after mixing a round of freshly squeezed lemonade, the refreshing taste perfect on a warm afternoon, to find that people were starting to fade. Natalie was slumbering on a double sun lounge next to Jane, who from the relaxed look on her features was starting to drift off as well. Anastasia was ruffling Jo Friday's fur where he lay sprawled out on the lounge next to her, while Brenda and Sharon sat side by side on the pool edge, arms around each other's waists and Brenda's head resting on Sharon's shoulder, the pair so obviously happy and comfortable I wished I had a camera on hand to record them. Seeing my arrival Sharon nudged Brenda gently and they rose, moving over to collect their drinks.

Thanking me they took their drinks, sampling them and expressing their appreciation, when I noticed that Natalie, deeply asleep and unaware of what's she was doing, had rolled over and was happily cuddling into Jane, drawing a startled 'hey' from Jane. Anastasia looked up at her quiet outburst, taking in the scene and hastily muffling her laughter at Jane's mortified expression, then spoke softly.

"Yeah, Nat's a cuddler Jane, she prefers to sleep snuggled up to me, she's doing it unconsciously" Jane looked down at the beautiful visage snuggled so close and pulled a face before looking up, I noticed she kept her voice down, clearly not wanting to wake her unwitting sleeping companion.

"Well can you come and get her?" Anastasia just smiled wickedly, she was enjoying this chance to tease Jane entirely too much.

"But Natalie looks very comfy there Jane. It'd be a shame to wake her" Nat certainly did look comfortable, her head resting on Jane's shoulder, arm over her waist and one leg thrown over Jane's, from my own experience it was her usual sleep position if she was not spooning her sleep partner. I smiled, a trifle naughtily given Jane's predicament.

"I must say Natalie does look particularly comfortable Jane" I got a vexed look in return.

"Thank you for that observation Doctor Smartypants" There was muffled laughter from next to us as I turned to see Brenda standing there towelling the water from her hair as she took in the scene.

"Good to see interdepartmental cooperation in the LAPDs never been better" Brenda may have been her boss but it didn't stop the filthy look Jane shot her. I noticed however she hadn't made any attempt to move Natalie, for all her protests Jane was as gentle with Natalie as she was with Alex or I. Sharon joined in the teasing as she took in the sight, Natalie in her skimpy white bikini, Jane in her dark one-piece swimsuit, shaking her head slowly.

"Congratulations Jane, you've successfully achieved something most of Pope's senior officers group would kill for, not only do you have Maura but you're sleeping with an almost naked Natalie too" The look she got was no less filthy than the one she'd turned on Brenda.

"You are not helping" She hissed in a low voice. "None of you are" I shrugged, vastly amused, something which probably came out in my tone, given the look I received.

"It looked like you were both drifting off to sleep Jane, Natalie obviously finds you comfortable so perhaps you should go with the tide on this? Ana leaned in towards me, her voice low.

"Flow Maura, it's go with the flow" I smiled happily at her, pleased to be corrected.

"Oh, thank you" Turning back to Jane I tilted my head as I took them both in. "Go with the flow Jane, we will leave you both to sleep" As I turned away Jane called after us, low and soft with a touch of pleading.

"Maura..." Facing away from Jane, I let a huge grin out at her predicament, before leading us back to the table and a fresh round of drinks. From where I was sitting I could see Jane shake her head in exasperation then, obviously realising she might as well get used to it, settled back and closed her eyes. Anastasia topped up lemonade and sat back, her voice a little reflective, though I could hear the humour underpinning it.

"I wonder if I should have told Jane about Nat going for the grope?" Brenda looked up.

"Oh?" Anastasia smirked wickedly.

"Yeah, when Nat's asleep she gets a bit handsy, she tends to gravitate to my boobs" We all cast a quick look over to the pair then shared smiles before Sharon spoke, her amusement evident in her voice.

"That might be interesting"

"I was wondering about that myself actually" I smiled in recollection. "At one point during the nights when I stayed with you, I woke up to find Natalie was spooning me, with one hand cupping my breast" Anastasia nodded.

"Yep, that's what usually happens" I nodded.

"I realised that and ignored it, when I awoke later her hand had moved" Looking up at Brenda and Sharon's obviously intrigued looks I shrugged. "When Jane was back in Boston I found myself unable to get a decent night's sleep alone so Jane asked Natalie and Anastasia to invite me over for dinner. Afterwards they told me I was sleeping there, I did not realise it at the time that sleeping 'there' meant snuggled in between them" I smiled happily at the memory. "Unorthodox perhaps, but I did sleep well until Jane returned" Anastasia nodded as she spoke, her eyes on where Natalie lay comfortably embracing Jane.

"Yep, when Jane and I were away in Alabama Maura stayed at their place, at least they got a decent night's sleep, even if we didn't" Brenda just smirked.

"But did you do the same thing as them while they were away?" Anastasia rolled her eyes then pulled a face as everyone else sniggered, causing my smile to widen.

"It would appear that they did not" I was about to say something more when there was a surprised 'Hey!' from the lounge. Looking over I could see a red-faced Jane lifting Nat's hand from her breast as a satisfied Anastasia smirked.

"Told you she'd go for the grope"


	60. Chapter 60

**A/N **Standard disclaimers apply: I don't own these characters though I wish I did, their ownership resides with their respective legal rights holders, I'm just grateful for the opportunity to play with them, mixing and matching

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**60 Meanwhile, back in…**

**New York**

Olivia's viewpoint

Late Monday afternoon and the weekend's already a regretfully memory, submerged under the weight of work. Alex and I had planned our weekend on the premise that I was certain to get called back into the office simply on the basis that we were expecting the DNA results to come in over the weekend, hopefully confirming our suspicions that the rapist who'd targeted three pre-teen girls from the same school was the school's janitor. We already had him for child porn on his computer, plus his basement was full of surreptitiously taken pictures of kids from the girl's school where he worked, all providing masturbatory fantasy material for the sick fucker.

Unfortunately the DNA results had cleared him of the rapes so we were back to square one, which meant that I had no reason to come in to work over the weekend. As Alex put it, our suspect wasn't going anywhere; there was nothing to be gained by going in and everything to be gained by staying in. Given we were in bed enjoying a lazy Sunday morning I had to admit she was right, I had a naked Alex Cabot in my bed and absolutely no desire to be anywhere else.

When I'd agreed her eyes had lit up at the thought of lunch at a decent restaurant and the afternoon spent shopping together as I'd inwardly groaned. Not that I don't mind being the supportive girlfriend when Alex's on a mission to boldly shop like no one's shopped before, it was just that I had a long list of things I'd rather be doing instead so I had to take matters firmly in hand. Interrupting her musings as to which stores we should be visiting, I'd flipped her onto her back and silenced her with a kiss, before setting down to the serious business at hand, rendering my normally loquacious lover incoherent and exhausted, a job I took to with gusto.

Now though I was sitting at my desk, supposedly rethinking the list of potential suspects but in reality replaying yesterday's activities. At one point I'd slipped down the bed and gathered her foot into my hands, bringing it up and kissing the very point of her big toe, before very methodically, very carefully and very, very slowly working my way up that endless length of shapely leg, laving it with kisses, tongues and even the occasional nips and bites, all in places where they weren't visible to the casual observer. After a journey that had seemed all too short but which had left Alex pleading with me to finish, I had found myself at the junction of her thighs, staring at the evidence of just how turned on she was, as if her begging hadn't already told me exactly what she wanted.

Instead, I'd moved back down to the end of the bed and retraced my path once more, this time on the other leg, much to her loudly-voiced dismay. By the time I'd finished that journey Alex's hips were involuntarily thrusting upwards and she'd been reduced to semi-coherent begging, pleading with me to finish what I'd started and end the torture. The scream when I'd dived in to fasten my mouth on her clit had been worth every second spent getting to that point, the exhausted, mumbling wreck that she was afterwards when I gathered her into my arms and pulled her onto me to snuggle close had been even better.

Nothing makes me feel centred like a slumbering Alex sprawled across me, her head tucked into the crook of my neck, her body clinging to me unconsciously in what I'd once heard described as a 'koala' cuddle. I didn't care what it was called, it was a feeling I lived for; Alex, here, whole and safe and mine after all these years. I was suddenly interrupted from my pleasant mental reverie by Rollins; she'd wandered over my way and had a smirk on her face.

"Looks like somebody had a big weekend by the look of that goofy smile" I focussed back on her and shook my head, ditching the smile.

"I have no idea what you're on about" She just grinned, her accent growing more pronounced.

"You got that 'I just got laid and couldn't be happier' smile, C'mon fess up" I shook my head, getting a frown in return. "C'mon Liv, who was it? Did you finally give in to that detective in Fraud who's been chasing you for months?" I shook my head again. The only people here at work who officially knew we were together were Captain Cragen and Alex's boss Branch; everyone else just thought we were close friends. There'd be less salacious gossip that way, plus we worked hard to make sure there were no grounds for some sleazy defence lawyer to claim impropriety; hence Alex didn't handle the cases I led.

"Sorry 'manda, a lady doesn't kiss and tell" I lifted an eyebrow as I messed with her. "You'd know that, if you were a lady" Amanda just shook her head and smiled.

"We're cops Liv, only ladies here are our ADA's" She grimaced. "They can afford to be ladies, they don't have to chase the scum we do down into the filth, they get to sit high and mighty above it all, safe and clean and pretty" I frowned a little, I didn't like her inference, particularly with Alex so a little protectiveness was warranted. I let my voice harden, seeing her eyes widen a little as I did.

"Don't push that line too hard Amanda, we've lost too many ADA's through this job, it was before your time here but Sonya Paxton was murdered, we almost lost Alex and a couple of our other ADAs have had close shaves with the psycho's we deal with. Just cause they don't face the scum in an arrest doesn't mean they don't stand in the firing line too, so I'd appreciate it if you knew your facts before you shoot your mouth off like that" Rollins nodded and looked away, looking more than a little chastened.

Good, if I'd been a little too hard in slapping her down then I didn't care; I still had nightmares about the night Alex was shot so I didn't appreciate her inference that they were safe. Rollins looked back at me and held up her hand in apology.

"Sorry Liv, I didn't know, about the death, I mean I knew about Cabot's stuff, only cause she's back now, but I didn't know about the others" She shook her head and changed the subject. "I came over to ask if you had the school security guard's statement" I frowned and started searching for it in the file.

"I think so, why, got something?" She pulled a face.

"No, just wanted to refresh myself with the timeline he gave us and compare it to other witnesses" I nodded and retrieved the statement, passing it across, with a nod she took it and headed back to her desk, leaving me with my musings. I sometimes wondered if it might be easier if more people knew about Alex and I, we'd been quite discreet, though I suspected a couple of people might suspect something, Munch and Fin might, they'd known me long enough to know when I was happy and I'd certainly been that with Alex. They hadn't asked, for which I'd been grateful, I wouldn't answer unless Alex agreed and I didn't want to have to lie to them.

For a moment I thought wistfully of Jane and Maura. They'd got together the same night we did and had been a bit more open about their relationship; fortunately most people had been supportive, though Jane's direct boss hadn't been one of them. I didn't think we'd have that problem if we came out to the people here, though some of the other ADAs might be a little difficult. For them though the petty harassment from her boss had got to the point that when Maura had learnt of an opportunity to take a secondment with the LAPD, she'd eagerly agreed, on the proviso that Jane could get a similar secondment, fortunately the LAPD had said yes.

Since then they'd never looked back. They'd found themselves a wonderful group of friends who accepted them just as they were. Nat and Ana were amazing, they'd become fast and firm friends with them both and that friendship had extended to us both when we'd come to visit, Alex, Maura and Nat were now as thick as thieves, they even considered themselves 'sisters by choice if not by blood' as Natalie had put it, while Jane and Ana were just as close to me, we always looked forward to catching up with them both.

They'd also made good friends with Brenda and Sharon, who'd been just as welcoming to us when we visited, plus apparently the guys in Brenda's Major Crimes' team had been more than accepting of them, something that had led them to decide to stay out there permanently.

I had to admit to myself that I was a bit jealous of them, for their chance at a new start together, for the closeness they had with Nat and Ana, the support of their bosses and team, hell even the weather out there was a nice change. LA in winter was a hell of a lot nicer than New York, I liked the snow and ice skating and the fun aspects of winter as much as the next New Yorker, but the sleet, slush, ice and blizzards were getting harder and harder to take. Idly I considered the idea of living out there, it was tempting, to start over surrounded by friends, before I firmly closed that particular Pandora's Box.

Alex and I had jobs to do here and I could say, without a hint of conceit, that no one did those jobs better here in New York. Our case solve and conviction rates were as good as they had ever been, something that Branch and Craven both commented on, plus we got to take some of the worst of the scum off the streets and put them where they'd never hurt an innocent ever again. We were making a real difference here, even though I realised that there was a never ending supply of monsters out there that needed to be fought.

My musings were interrupted as I heard the sound of heels coming down the hall, glancing up to see both our ADA's walk into the squad room. Both were dressed in tailored suits, Casey Novak's straight red hair contrasting with Alex's tumbled blonde as they walked our way, Alex stopping to talk to Fin, she was prosecuting one of his cases while Casey covered mine.

I got to sit back under the pretense of reading a statement and just admire her; Alex was wearing a navy skirt suit, tailored jacket and knee-length pencil skirt over a crisp white blouse with black patent leather pumps, Alex's standard work attire. I smiled to myself though when I remembered that she was wearing something distinctly non-work-like underneath. She'd teased me by timing it so that as I walked out of the shower (we'd long ago learned that if we shared a shower on work days we'd both be very, very late) she was rolling a nude thigh-high stocking slowly up one leg, then attaching it to a lacy black suspender belt, one that matched the panties over it and the balconette bra that did a wonderful job of attracting my attention to her cleavage.

I'd stopped dead in the doorway, watching her then swallowed into a suddenly dry mouth as she'd switched legs and slowly rolled the stocking all the way up, it only occurred to me as she finished attaching it that it could have been me doing that for her. Damn.

She'd just looked up at me and smiled a little at seeing me, her smile turning to a smirk at my gob-smacked expression before walking past me, patting me on the cheek and telling me that if I was a good girl I could take them off her tonight. The thought made me smile, just in time for Casey to catch me.

"Tone it down lover girl" I glanced up to see blue eyes smiling at me. Casey had known for months, ever since we'd told her why Alex couldn't handle my cases, and she continued to discreetly tease us both. "Didn't you get enough on the weekend, god knows Alex's got enough goofy smiles for the both of you" I just raised an eyebrow, even as I noted she'd kept her voice down low enough to not let anyone overhear us.

"Jealousy's a curse Counselor…" I let my eyes wander up Alex's legs where her skirt had ridden up a little as she had sat back against Fin's desk, then glanced back up at Casey. "I work very hard to make sure Alex has no complaints" I got a gentle scoff.

"Yeah right, the only complaint she has is that she's still stiff and sore" I buried a satisfied smirk with effort and smiled happily.

"I'd love to help you there Casey…" I let my eyes wander over Casey's body for a second, she had a very nice one, similar to Alex's and more than enticing, before looking up into her eyes. "...but I'm a one-ADA woman" Casey smiled; she knew I was just teasing her, something she had no problems tossing back at me.

"That's a real shame Liv, I'd love to take you up on your offer, but I don't think you'd be up for the both of us at once" She smiled, a little smirk playing there. "Alex and I at the same time, there's a thought to keep you occupied" I just shook my head at her, even though the imagery of tangled red and blonde hair splayed across a pillow together was way more than just enticing.

"Ah Casey, thanks for the offer, but I don't think you could keep up with us" I chuckled. "If you're interested though I could recommend a few women who'd probably be dying to get into your pants" We both knew she was seeing Wall Street lawyer who was apparently a good guy despite where he worked, but we also both knew how the rules of the game worked, she teased me, I teased her, all in good fun. She tilted her head.

"Who, your friend Maura, she looks like she'd be fun, plus your old partner Kate Beckett's hot" I shook my head slowly.

"You do know Maura's partner carries a gun and Kate not only carries a gun but her other half is a millionaire author with a huge protective streak who dreams up how to murder people for a living, so maybe not" I shrugged. "Alex'd be pissed if she had to break in a new ADA because you'd been murdered so…" She laughed softly.

"Where's your sense of adventure Benson, you're no fun"

"I wouldn't go that far" It was Alex who'd quietly walked over. "I happen to think she's plenty of fun" I grinned as Casey shook her head.

"Like you're an unbiased observer, I think I could get you dismissed from this argument for conflict of interest" Alex tipped her head to regard Casey as the back and forth between them began again.

"While there's plenty of interest, I can assure you there's no conflict here" She threw a sultry glance at me and carefully licked her lips. "Quite the opposite in fact" I tried to ignore the fact that it suddenly seemed to have got a lot hotter in here. Casey meanwhile shook her head.

"Tone it down you two, I think me having to throw a bucket of cold water over you both might just tip off everyone else" I smiled and shook my head even as she spoke. "Before you arrived I was suggesting Liv here couldn't handle both of us at once" Alex turned to look at her, seeing that look I just knew Casey was about to get played. Checking that no one was close enough to hear, she spoke, her voice low.

"I don't know about that, Liv here's very, very good at multi-tasking. I mean the other day not only was she going down on me like a dream but she was getting herself off with one hand while playing with my boobs with the other, all at the same time" I felt the blood rush to my cheeks even as Casey blushed red to her hair roots and looked away, while Alex's smirk widened triumphantly.

Game set and match Alex Cabot, again.

**Alabama**

Major Darren Troy sat back in his office and sighed. He'd spent the last week carefully covering his tracks, a string of reports and briefings to the brass pointing out how he'd managed to uncover a weapons theft from the Marine base up at Huntsville.

They'd all been carefully tailored to show his actions in the best possible light while downplaying the work of those two meddling bitches from Los Angeles, he'd had to include them, but he'd carefully minimised their role and emphasised his own work. It was how the game had to be played if he was to going to get himself out of this Confederate hell-hole and back to Washington, especially if he was going to make Colonel anytime soon.

He'd been working on convincing the postings people that his skills were being wasted down here, a successful investigation into weapons theft and smuggling should help his cause no end. It helped that he'd been able to show how seamlessly he'd been able to work with civilian law enforcement, handing off the case to the Bureau and the LAPD, stuff like that counted when you were being considered for promotion.

Thinking about the whole exercise, he was grateful that both those women were gone, they'd turned up and sent everything to hell, it had taken a lot of work to clean up their involvement and cover up the less than stellar parts of the investigation. Fortunately they'd been focused on solving the case and fucked off back to wherever the hell they'd come from as soon as possible.

Both of them were gone but that didn't mean he hadn't dreamed about doing them both, they were beautiful and in his fantasies he'd got to do them both in the most humiliating ways, imagining them begging him to fuck them before he pushed them face down over his desk. Served them right for the way they'd treated him. Troy liked his women meek, submissive and face down, right where he wanted them. Both those bitches were nice but needed to be taken down a peg, something he'd done repeatedly in his fantasies.

He was sitting back with a satisfied smile when he suddenly noticed a woman in Marine Corp uniform walking his way through the outer office. He didn't recognise her but she was sporting Colonel's rank and he could see she was beautiful even inside her utilitarian uniform, short dark hair in regulation cut, a body that was seriously shaped and a face he just knew he'd fantasise about later, even if she was way too self-confident for his tastes. He hastily stood as she walked into his office.

"Good morning, I'm Major Troy, welcome to Birmingham" She nodded, even as her eyes raked over him. Finally she nodded once more and spoke.

"I'm Colonel Sarah Mackenzie, Judge Advocate Generals' Office" Mac kept the smile she felt at Troy's suddenly stricken look to herself. "I'm here to conduct an official review into the theft of various weapons from the Corps' Huntsville depot and how the investigation was handled" She watched as Troy's face drained of colour, even as she dropped her Corp-issued trench coat, bag and garrison cap on one seat and carefully sat in the other as Troy spoke, his voice weak.

"It's all in my reports Colonel, I assume you've read them?"

Mac nodded, she had on the flight down from Washington; they even looked credible. It was obvious that Troy was nothing if not good at covering his ass if nothing else. Mind you armed with the information that Ana had kindly passed on to her, plus the statement from her LAPD friend Rizzoli and calls to Colonel Thomas at the Huntsville depot and the local police chief up there she had a much clearer picture of what was going on.

Looking at Troy fidget under her gaze Mac smiled internally, she really should thank Ana, this was going to be fun.

"Sit down Major, we have much to discuss"


	61. Chapter 61

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**61 Officer Involved Shooting**

Brenda's viewpoint

I was seriously unhappy; here we were, enjoying some 'us' time after a busy week wrapping up the aftermath of the Barrio Boy's / Blood Brothers case when Sharon got the call to an Officer Involved Shooting. We were sitting in a nice little gourmet burger place and debating the menu choices, planning to head out afterwards and catch a movie and cuddle, when her cell went off. Our eyes met, we both knew that ringtone; for convenience's sake I had the same one for LAPD dispatch on mine.

A few minutes later, after making our apologies to the restaurant we were in Sharon's car and on our way to the scene. According to dispatch there had been an OIS involving several deaths, which probably meant that our night was completely ruined. Sharon had suggested that I head home and she'd call me later, but I'd wanted to be there for her, we'd been so busy lately that time together had been at a premium.

Besides I'd never seen her team at work without somehow either being involved or having one of my team involved so I was curious to see Sharon at work from an unbiased perspective. Pulling up at the street we had to badge our way past the uniforms blocking off the street; we were in Sharon's BMW rather than a Crown Vic, so I couldn't fault them for that. Once parked we got out, locked up and made our way into the building, attracting a bit of attention as neither of us was really dressed for work.

Sharon had on her boot-cut stone-wash jeans, a set of tan heeled boots and a grey polo with a well-worn brown leather jacket over it, while I was wearing black jeans, my dressy runners, a lacy white button down and my black leather jacket. We gave our names to an officer on the door, picked up gloves and booties and headed inside past the police guarding the scene. Not without good reason either, I'd noticed a crowd had formed behind the crime scene tape, not a particularly pleasant one; we were in Florence, a crowded, low socio-economic area with a high percentage of Latino's and African Americans, many of whom didn't have the best relationship with the LAPD.

The place was a mess, blood everywhere, with several bodies lying on the floor. The sergeant on the door turned, happy to see us and turn the situation over to someone higher up the food chain. We introduced ourselves and his eyebrows rose, clearly he didn't expect us to arrive so quickly, no one from FID or the MEs office was here yet.

"What happened Sergeant...?" Sharon read his name plate. "Melville?" He flipped out his notebook and started to read it out.

"Well ma'am, 911 got a call from a neighbor about a disturbance here, well at the front door, around 8.15. The first unit to respond found an African-American man and woman banging on the door" He shrugged. "Domestic dispute apparently, the apartment belonged to Desmond Smith" He gestured to a heavy set African-American man lying on the floor with the lower half of his face blown off from a gunshot wound. "That's him there, we identified him from his driver's license" Unconsciously we both nodded in synch, taking in the scene.

"This's his apartment, apparently he was separated or divorced and had shared custody of their two kids, they were staying here this weekend" Sharon nodded again as I looked around, seeing several photos of two young girls in various places around the room. I also saw several blood pools on the floor. Melville continued reading.

"Apparently while he had the kids this weekend, his ex-wife, ex-partner, dunno for sure yet ma'am, anyway the ex, a Shanelle Jones and her boyfriend Jamarcus Jackson had turned up, demanding to have the kids handed back, the first responding officer said they seemed intoxicated, either drugs or drink" Sharon looked back at him and raised an eyebrow, making the sergeant obviously nervous. "Sorry ma'am, we won't know for sure until we get blood results back" Sharon nodded and spoke, her tone reassuring.

"Please continue Sergeant"

"It seems the argument had been going on for a while and getting heated when the first unit arrived. They calmed everything down and moved everyone inside to get away from the neighbors who were watching and apparently egging them on" I saw Sharon's lips thin as I silently agreed with her thoughts, that'd been a mistake, separate the parties in a domestic dispute, don't push them together.

"The boyfriend, Jackson, was getting more aggravated and our guys were in the process of calming him down when the father apparently said that they were obviously doing drugs again and he'd get the courts to award him sole custody. That set off Jackson who attacked the father" Melville flipped the page over and kept reading.

"So Jackson physically assaulted the father; Smith; our guys stepped in to pull them apart, unfortunately while they were distracted the mother, Shanelle Jones, pulled out a pistol from her bag" I winced, I could already see a pile of errors in how the officers had handled the situation, Sharon no doubt saw even more. Melville paused and looked up at us, to see Sharon and I watching him, we were obviously making him nervous. Sharon nodded; her voice quiet.

"I see. Please continue Sergeant" He nodded at her calm command and looked down at his notebook again.

"Before our officers could react she'd taken a shot at the husband, but missed, the bullet instead passed through that door…" He gestured towards a doorway on the far side of the room. "It struck an eleven year old girl in the head, killing her" He grimaced. "The girl, Laetitia, she must have been listening to the argument with her ear against the door, she was killed instantly" I sighed sadly, catching Sharon's eyes as she too winced at the loss of a child's life. Melville though was still going on, as if eager to unburdon himself and hand responsibility for this fiasco to someone else.

"A second shot at her ex instead hit one of our people, Officer Carly Ramirez, in the arm; she went down, while the bullet seemed to have gone on to hit her boyfriend in the stomach" He gestured towards two of the blood pools. "Her third and final shot blew Smith's jaw off, leaving him to bleed out" I shook my head slowly, what a horrible mess. Sharon however was the picture of calm.

"What happened then Sergeant?"

The other officer, Linc Wade, was hit by a bullet in the vest as he attempted to grapple with Jones; he fell hard as the woman went to shoot her ex again, to make sure of it I guess. Ramirez, who was on the floor had got her gun out by now and told her to put hers down. Jones fired again, missing everybody and then Ramirez fired, hitting the woman in the chest. The next responding unit was coming up the stairs and heard the shots, they secured the scene and called for ambulances and more backup"

"Where is everyone now?"

"Ramirez's at the hospital, her arms a mess, elbow maybe shattered. Wade's downstairs waiting to be interviewed after the EMTs finish checking him out. The mother and her boyfriend are in hospital, both in bad shape. The dead girl's through there" He gestured towards the open doorway before looking back at us.

"There's an eight year old girl as well, the other sister, Tianna. She's a few apartment's up the corridor at her best friend's place with my partner looking after her, I wanted to get her away from all this" He waved around the room and the blood everywhere. Sharon nodded slowly, taking in the room, before returning her attention to Melville, who was standing there looking relieved that he'd handed this mess over to someone else.

"Thank you Sergeant. Once my team gets here they will sit down with you and get your story again, but I appreciate your summation" He nodded as I walked slowly across the room, carefully avoiding the blood pooled on the floor to look in the corridor, seeing a young girl sprawled across the floor beyond the door, half her head missing. I sighed sadly; at least it would have been instantaneous. I felt Sharon come up to stand next to me as I looked across to her, seeing the tension and anger in her eyes as she spoke, her voice a low murmur.

"What an appalling fiasco" I nodded, keeping my voice equally low.

"A whole lot of things got messed up here, even I can see that" Sharon shook her head angrily, her voice reflecting her anger and frustration despite the low volume.

"I don't know what the hell the Academy's teaching these days but this is pretty near a text book case of what not to do in a domestic dispute" I realised the uniforms were watching us curiously so I settled for a light hand on Sharon's forearm, hoping to convey some comfort to her.

"So what do we do now?" I got a small grateful nod.

"When my team arrives we start the interview process, Maura should be here soon with her team and Natalie will have got the call too. We're going to need her tonight, you saw the crowd out there when we arrived?" I nodded as she continued. "Won't take much for this to turn into a 'police shooting results in a young girl dying' story, which this city doesn't need right now" I nodded, that was how riots started.

"Or ever really" We were interrupted by the arrival of Lieutenant Elliot from Sharon's team. He walked in, noting both of us and nodding.

"Commander, Chief Johnson" I nodded.

"Lieutenant" Sharon smiled.

"Kevin, good to see you" He smiled back.

"You got here quick" Sharon shrugged.

"We were out having dinner when the call came in, not all that far away" He winced in sympathy.

"Shame your night's ruined. What have we got?" Sharon dropped her voice.

"A badly handled domestic dispute that turned ugly, two civilians dead, two more plus one of our officers in the hospital and an officer downstairs who needs to be interviewed once he's cleared to talk by the EMT's" At his look she clarified. "He took a close range shot to the vest from a pistol" Elliot was already taking notes.

"OK, I'll get someone on that as soon as the others get here" Sharon looked up.

"Talk to Sergeant Melville, he was handling the scene before we arrived and already has preliminary notes on what happened, they can form the basis for our interviews" He nodded.

"Right you are Commander, I'll go check on the officer downstairs and get his details" Sharon nodded and then held up her hand to get his attention and make him pause.

"Apparently one of the shots was fired by our officer in hospital, a Carly Ramirez, so we'll need to retrieve her weapon for ballistics" Elliot nodded, making notes in his notepad. There was a tapping at the door attracting our attention; we looked up to see Natalie standing there pulling gloves on, booties already over her wedge heels, looking semi-casual in jeans, a white button down and a navy blue blazer, her standard out of hours call-out look. At our nod she walked in, also avoiding the blood on the floor.

"Hi Sharon, hey Brenda, what do we have?" I looked at Sharon and smiled.

"Want me to brief Nat in while you finish with Lieutenant Elliot here?" I got a grateful smile and a nod, so I drew Natalie back towards the door and gave her a quick update. Finishing up I saw Sharon was now free.

"You'd best have a chat with Sharon though, this is her case and I'm just an observer tonight" I got a lift of an eyebrow from her, before she nodded.

"No problem. You had something planned tonight didn't you?"

"We were about to have dinner and then take in a movie when we got the call, we were relatively close so it made sense for us to come right on over" I got a sad smile.

"Shame about that, I think your night's basically shot, especially with the crowd outside" At my look she shrugged. "The crowds getting ugly and apparently think that our guys shot the place up. A lot of angry tweets" She waved her phone. "The 'LAKillerCops' hashtag's getting a lot of traffic" I shook my head and sighed, social media...

"Marvelous, just what everyone needs" Natalie nodded.

"I'll have a chat to Sharon, get our story straight and then go face the media. Ana's downstairs getting a coffee for me, send her a text and she can get Sharon and you one as well, we're going to be here a while" I looked up.

"She wouldn't mind?" Natalie shook her head.

"Of course not, you can keep her company when she gets back, she didn't want me coming to Florence alone tonight, so she decided to play chauffeur" She smiled at her partner's protectiveness while I nodded, it made sense; Florence was a better place than it had been in years gone by, but still not the place for a beautiful woman like Natalie to wander around alone on a Saturday night.

"I'll send her a text" Natalie nodded and left to go talk to Sharon as I made my way downstairs. Natalie had been right, the crowd's mood was pretty angry and the media crews on site were interviewing some of the more vocally hostile citizens. I leaned back against a black and white, texting Ana and then watched for a while before I saw an unmarked Crown Vic pull up; Jane and Maura emerging; another person who wouldn't let their partner come down here alone. Jane was in jeans and a Sox jacket over a polo shirt, Maura of course couldn't do anything so casual, wearing a dark fitted dress and a tailored black blazer over a set of polished black leather boots, the heels making her almost as tall as Jane who was in runners.

Maura spotted me as she veered in my direction once she passed under the tape, showing her ID to one of the officers, Jane following after her, badge in hand as Maura nodded in greeting.

"Good evening Brenda, I am surprised to see you here tonight" I smiled.

"Sharon and I were just sitting down to dinner when the call came" Jane nodded.

"Same here, what's it like up there?" I frowned, recalling the child.

"Two dead, one an eleven year old girl" I watched Maura's eyes tighten; no one liked working on young children.

"Then, if you will excuse me, I will get to work" We both nodded as she turned and entered the building. I suddenly remembered that Anastasia was on a coffee run.

"Ana's off getting coffees in case you'd like to text her to get you one as well" I got a huge Rizzoli grin.

"Already have, we got a text letting us know she was driving Natalie in, just in case I was coming in with Maura" I smiled, it was typical of them, they were very close.

We stood there for a few minutes, chatting about the shooting upstairs, Major Crime's cases and just casual, non-work topics, until Ana weaved her way under the tape, wearing jeans, a warm hoodie and boots, her hands full with a collection of coffee cups. Jane saw her and we wandered over to help her past the officer asking for ID, retrieving a cup each, before Ana headed upstairs with Maura, Natalie and Sharon's coffees. A few minutes later she was back, her face grim.

"What a mess, just from the little Nat gave me the attending cops did just about everything wrong" We nodded; we'd already discussed all the ways things had been badly handled tonight. I tipped my head towards the crowd on the other side of the line.

"It's not the only thing that's a mess" Ana turned to see the crowd, it was sullen and hostile, the media having no problem finding people willing to vent on camera. "Natalie will have her hand's full" Ana nodded.

"Messy all right; Nat's handled this sort of stuff before, but I'm not totally comfortable with the crowd, they're a bit feral tonight" Jane nodded and then turned.

"Here she comes" We looked up to see Natalie walk out of the building, pausing to take in the crowd, watching their interactions with the media, before walking over to us, coffee cup in hand.

"Well, here I go, wish me luck" We nodded and smiled as Ana leaned in and kissed her gently, before whispering something in her ear, getting a smile in return before Nat nodded and stepped back, looking over to the camera's again, she put the cup down next to the streetlight, pulling a small compact from her jacket pocket and checking her makeup in the light from her phone's torch which Ana held as she checked herself. Satisfied she put it away, retrieved her phone and turned to the assembled media.

I saw her shoulders straighten and her face change, losing a little of the lovely warm softness that was so her, becoming slightly cooler, more formal, obviously she was putting her 'game face' on, it was fascinating watching her 'on the job', I'd never seen her like this before, normally she kept the media busy while I got on with my job, I'd not been in a position to watch her on camera like this. With a slight tug on her coat to straighten it out and a nod our way she walked towards the police line, stepping under it and moving towards the cameras.

I saw Ana moving after her, but off to one side to stay out of the camera's view, Jane sharing a look with me before we followed after her, given the mood of the crowd I could understand why Ana wanted to stay close; Natalie was walking into the middle of the media and crowd where she'd be an easy target. Nat greeted the media warmly and explained that she'd be giving a statement then answering questions and that there would be no one-on-one interviews tonight, the investigation was on-going. For the next few minutes, I listened as she stated the facts quickly and concisely, without prejudice.

Outlining the clear facts as we knew them; pointing out that the two dead were killed by a suspect, that we had another in hospital together with a police officer who had been shot trying to defend one of the shooting victims, that ballistics and forensics evidence would form the basis for the investigation and that the Force Investigation final report would be made public

As she continued, answering questions ranging from the insightful; '…how had the suspect come to kill the child?' through to the idiotic; '…does the LAPD regret the death's?' I had to admire her; Natalie kept her cool, remained pleasant and understanding and kept answering the same questions asked in different ways. After the fifth question asking her to speculate on the motivations of the suspects, I'd have been willing to shoot the person asking, but she kept answering them with the same warm, polite, pleasant demeanor.

Several asked to interview the officers involved, which was firmly rebuffed, two even asked to speak to Maura which surprised me, until Jane quietly explained that she'd started appearing on the fashion pages of the papers and on some of their websites and blogs, all commenting on her clothes.

Finally even the media worked out they weren't going to get anything more tonight and the media conference wrapped up, leaving them to grab a few more interviews with the crowd as Natalie stepped away, her professional mask in place until she was certain she wasn't being filmed, then gave a low groan. I smiled.

"A tough audience tonight Nat?" She shook her head.

"Just the usual third and fourth string crews covering the night shift, all desperately hoping for something controversial they can get that'll run on the breakfast news and get them enough attention to move to the day shift. I shouldn't complain though, the top crews would have asked a lot more difficult questions, some of them have been around long enough to ask the sort of questions this lot didn't, like how come the shootings happened after we arrived" I nodded as Jane spoke.

"Yeah, most domestic shootings happen before the cops turn up" Natalie nodded slowly.

"Exactly, I really hoped I wasn't going to be asked that one" She shrugged. "I got lucky" We moved out of the way as a uniformed officer guided the coroner's van as it reversed back to the building's door, a sure sign they were bringing the bodies out. As we watched the camera's moved to where they could get a clear shot of the action; vultures.

For the next fifteen minutes we stood around as the two bodies were removed from the building an loaded into the van, everyone wincing at the small size of the second body bag being carried out; before the van drove off as Maura walked our way looking grim. Jane reached out and pulled her in close, placing a comforting arm around her shoulder.

"Hey babe, how're you doing?" She smiled gently and a little sadly, looking up into Jane's face for a moment, before looking around at us.

"I am sorry; such a senseless death, she was only eleven-years old" We nodded, sharing the same sense of futility.

I went went to say something when I was distracted as I saw Sharon walk out of the building, to be met by an Asian detective, one of her team, Lucy Kwang. They spoke for a moment before she sent Kwang off on her way, looking around before her eyes landed on us and she walked in our direction. Ana followed my eyes and grimaced.

"Rough night" There was a murmur of agreement before Sharon joined us, I could see the tension in her eyes and her shoulders and I wanted to pull her into my arms, instead I contented myself to moving next to her and discreetly taking her hand in mine, getting a little squeeze of thanks.

"What's the verdict Sharon?" It was Ana. Sharon smiled a little wanly and then shrugged.

"Obviously its early days and we have to interview Officer Ramirez in hospital, plus the ex-wife and boyfriend, but it's not likely to change the key facts. The whole incident was handled badly from the arrival of the officer's right through" Jane nodded.

"What happens now?"

"We complete our interviews, then make recommendations to Chief Pope for further action" She was about to say something more when one of her Lieutenant's, Drew Parker walked up. We turned to look at him and he nodded.

"Pardon the interruption Chief, ladies, I need to speak to the Commander" Sharon looked at him and nodded.

"What is it Drew?" He frowned, I could already see he was about to deliver bad news.

"Just got word from Rosenberg at the hospital, the mother died on the table" There was a quiet sigh around the group as I felt Sharon's hand spasm in mine, before she let go to take her glasses off and rub her eyes. She was silent for a moment, then spoke, her voice tired.

"Thank you Drew, please notify the department's trauma counseling unit, plus Chief Pope's office that it is now a fatal OIS, I'll head over to the hospital soon to interview Officer Ramirez and the boyfriend, if he's available" She grimaced. "Please notify Ramirez and Wade's watch supervisor and we'll need to also inform the union" Parker nodded, already taking notes as we listened while Sharon replaced her glasses and continued.

"Fortunately Ms Dearing's already here so I'll work out a media statement with her before I head to the hospital" Natalie unconsciously nodded as we listened. "Please arrange for the body to be transferred to the morgue for Doctor Isle's autopsy tomorrow morning" She paused and checked her Longines watch, the one I'd given her for Christmas, then pulled a face. "This morning actually"

That set off a round of people checking watches and phones, it was just past midnight, I'd lost track of how long we'd been standing out here. Sharon was still talking.

"Once Doctor Isles has retrieved the bullets from the victims, if they haven't already been removed at the hospital, please get them down to ballistics and get matches to each of the weapons, we need to compare the forensic evidence to the witness statements" Parker nodded and kept writing. "Also please find out when we'll have the crime scene imagery for a review. Finally, let everyone know we'll do a case review at ten this morning" Parker finished writing and looked up but Sharon just shook her head.

"That should do it for now" Parker closed his notebook and nodded once.

"I'll get the ball rolling Commander; you're heading in to the hospital now?"

"I will be soon"

"OK, we'll catch up there" With a nod to Sharon and a sketchy wave to the rest of us he turned and walked off, already pulling out his cell, as we looked at Sharon. She sighed and looked at us.

"I have to interview Officer Wade and then head off to the hospital" She smiled at me ruefully. "Not exactly the best night out" I shook my head as I stepped a little closer next to her and rested my hand on her shoulder, giving it a little squeeze.

"I understand, after all it's work, not your fault or anything you could do. If it's anyone's fault it's the idiot mother and her boyfriend, not helped by the mess those officers made of it" She smiled a little and nuzzled my hand with her chin.

"True, not quite the ending to the evening I'd planned" Jane frowned.

"We've all got our ideas on what they did wrong, but you're the one who has to make the decisions, what's your thoughts?" Sharon frowned then nodded.

"The first question is why did this get to the point it did? Why didn't they seperate the two sides, why was backup so late getting here, why was the shooter able to get off so many shots before she was taken down, why was she shot in the first place, why not use a taser? So many questions to be answered before I can make a recommendation" Jane nodded slowly.

"This is my first time this side of an OIS and I know it's early but what are you likely to recommend?" Sharon looked a little thoughtful at the question and then spoke.

"Assuming we don't turn up any anomalies in the evidence and the statements back up the physical evidence, then I'll have two sets of recommendations, one set for these officers, the other for the LAPD. Both officers involved to undergo refresher training in conflict resolution, domestic dispute training and close combat training before they're allowed back out on the street" There were nods all around, they made sense.

"The second will be an audit of what's being taught in the academy and the average level of domestic dispute resolution skills of patrol officers. Depending on what that turns up we may have to institute refresher training" Ana frowned, as did I.

"Pope's gonna love that sweetie. All those extra costs" I let my voice deepen in a bad imitation of Pope's. "Damn it, there's no budget for it, where am I supposed to find the money for that, don't you realise money doesn't grow on trees" There were a few smiles at that, most of us had been on the receiving end of that particular rant from time to time. Sharon nodded with a sigh.

"That's why I'm not his most popular person in the aftermath of an OIS, most of my post-incident recommendations cost money, so I've heard that little speech plenty of times before" Jane shook her head.

"I couldn't do your job Sharon, having to sit in judgment on other cops, dealing with the hostility and the hate. I don't know how you do it" She smiled gently.

"Someone has to, it might as well be me" Maura frowned.

"I understand that you have been in Force Investigation for over a decade Sharon, is there no likelihood of a promotion or a transfer to another division?" Sharon looked at Maura and shrugged gently.

"Not really, Pope may not like my recommendations, but he knows the job's done right, keeping the Federal Government happy and off his back. None of the other slots for a Commander are likely to open up, even if one did it's likely he'd give someone else the job, after all, putting me in on top of a group of cops who'd probably despise me'd be a recipe for disaster" I smiled a little sadly, knowing she was right but Sharon really deserved so much more. Before I could say something Natalie snickered.

"We could always just murder Pope, lord knows he deserves it. As an outside agency Ana'd investigate but be unable to solve it, Maura'd lose any evidence pointing at us, I'd tell the media that the department needs the best possible person to run it so Brenda takes the Chief's job with Sharon as her Deputy, Jane runs Major Crimes and everyone lives happily ever after. Except Taylor of course, we regularly torture him for amusement" There were chuckles all round, it all sounded so easy and oh so tempting. I shook my head.

"I don't handle the politics too well. Sharon should get Pope's job" Maura raised an eyebrow, her voice deadpan.

"You would be under Sharon then Brenda, are you comfortable in that position" Sharon's voice was equally deadpan, though I could see the smile tugging at the sides of her mouth.

"It is one of our usual positions" there were smiles and grins all round as I tried to keep the laughter out of my voice.

"We're very flexible that way, whatever it takes" We dissolved into chuckles, some of the night's tension dissolving. Finally Sharon looked around, still with the ghost of a smile playing on her lips.

"Well, I have to head off to the hospital, get statements and start on my report to Pope" She leaned in for a quick peck on the lips. "Do you want to call a cab or can someone give you a lift?" I thought about it for a moment then shook my head.

"I'll stay with you, we saw this started and I wanted to see how you handle an OIS so I might as well see it through to the end" She looked at me, concern obvious in her eyes.

"Are you sure honey, this could go late…" She grimaced. "…well even later" I smiled at her concern, even as I noticed the others were drifting away to give us some privacy.

"I'm sure sweetie. Besides, I wouldn't sleep all that well without you" She smiled, one that lit up her green eyes.

"So this is all about you" she teased. "I should have known" I smiled happily, deciding to tease her back as we both tried to ignore the real reason I wanted to be with her. Her job was tough, if having me there could help, I'd happily do it, even if it meant no sleep tonight.

"Of course it is sweetie, I'd expected you'd have realised that by now. It's always all about me" Sharon smiled, leaning in to kiss me softly, before pulling away slightly, her mossy green eyes seeing right through me.

"Thank you honey, just…thank you" I leaned in and kissed her softly again, a gentle press of the lips, we were in public after all, surrounded by cops.

"Anytime Sharon, anytime"


	62. Chapter 62

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**62 Revealed**

Brenda's viewpoint

Another long day and I was feeling the strain, the pre-trial plea-bargaining paperwork for the DA's office on the Carpenter case still needed to be wrapped up, we were finishing up the aftermath of the armored car robbery and the associated weapon's smuggling case, we'd had two murder cases dropped in our laps which were underway plus we had the Witsec case consuming what was laughingly called our 'free' time.

Meanwhile Sharon was still wrapping up the investigation and recommendations of the OIS we'd attended, as we'd suspected Pope had squawked about the costs but he'd eventually acquiesced with poor grace, her suggestions were only common sense after all. With all that was going on I was left thinking longingly of a holiday, somewhere far from LA and the LAPD, somewhere involving, sun, sand, surf and Sharon in a skimpy, sexy swimsuit.

Mmm, now that was a daydream worth having.

I opened the door to my apartment, dropping in to pick up some clothes before heading over to Sharon's to spend the night, as I had since we'd realised I was being followed. I'd been very careful ever since, I'd suspected that I was being followed a couple of times and been careful to loose my tails, using some of the field craft that Mister Clark back at the Agency had taught me, plus more that I'd researched since. I was certain that I'd managed to avoid being followed to Sharon's which was a good thing, Sharon was too important for me to put her at risk.

Thinking about it her house was rapidly becoming 'home', it sure felt like it; I have to admit the idea of moving in permanently with Sharon was mighty appealing on a whole range of levels, especially if it meant not having to run back and forth between two places. I dropped my bag on the table and sorted through the mail I'd collected on the way in, mostly bills and junk mail, I stacked one lot on the table for payment and the rest got unceremoniously dumped in with the trash.

I walked into my bedroom to get some clothes and opened the closet when I suddenly realised something was wrong. Since the issue with being tailed, my CIA-installed paranoia had kicked in big time and I was back listening to Mister Clark's counter-surveillance lectures. One of them was how to leave things in a room that would indicate if someone else had been there, things like being extremely precise about where things were placed, leaving a drawer a fraction open, placing a sleeve of a coat in such a way that it sat across other clothes, but would fall when you opened the door, all sorts of minor things.

I'd just opened the closet to see that the coat sleeve I'd set up was hanging normally, when it should have fallen as I opened the door. I immediately stepped back into the kitchen and grabbed my Glock, moving through the rest of the apartment, checking all my little tells. A quick check soon showed that my apartment had been searched, drawers in my bedside table opened, closets too, books moved on the bookcase, they'd been looking for something. I wandered around, looking for what they might have been searching for, when my eyes lit on my address book, sitting on the table next to the home phone.

To be honest I rarely used it, everyone was listed in my phone, but I'd had a phone die once and take all my contacts with it, so I kept an old fashioned address book just in case I had to reprogram a phone. I'd been careful to set it on the table with the spine in exact alignment with a noticeable line in the table's wood grain, now it was out of alignment, someone had moved it.

I picked it up and flicked through it, mostly they were family and work people's contacts, I didn't need to update it all that often, the most recent being when I'd added in Jane and Maura's and Nat and Ana's contact details. I suddenly got a really bad feeling and flicked through to 'R', to find that I had Sharon's home address and phone number written down.

In seconds I was ringing her cell, praying she'd pick up, fortunately she did.

"Hi honey, what's up, did you catch a case?" I shook my head unconsciously.

"Sharon, where are you right now" I could hear the surprise in her voice.

"At home, I just got here" I felt a chill go through me.

"Sharon, get out of there, get out of there right now, they know your address"

"What, slow down Brenda, who knows my address?"

"My place's been searched, someone's been through here and tossed it, probably one of the Robbery / Homicide people, they found my address book Sharon, with your home address in it. You have to get out of there now" I could hear the frantic urgency in my voice, something Sharon picked up on.

"OK, calm down Brenda, I can head back out now, when should I go, back to work or someplace else?"

"We need to get you someplace safe. Ring Jane and see if you can go to their place, if she's not answering, ring Ana and go there, text me and I'll meet you wherever"

"OK Brenda, I'm heading out the door, I'll text you as soon as I know. You should get out of there too" I nodded.

"I know, I'm standing here, phone in one hand and pistol in the other, you don't have to tell me twice"

"I'll ring Jane right now; I'll text you when I know where I'm going"

"Go Sharon, be safe, but get going"

"See you soon. Love you"

"Love you too, now get" I hung up and looked around. I wanted to get some clothes but I didn't want to hang around in case whoever tossed my apartment came back. I mentally shrugged, grabbed my bag and headed out again, getting into my car and driving off, checking for tails as I went. I didn't see one, but that might have become redundant if they now knew where Sharon lived. They were only following me to find her place, now they knew. The question was, now they knew, what were they going to do with the information they had? I was still chewing that over when a text arrived, telling me to head to Jane's.

Thirty minutes later I was pulling up at their place, happy to see Sharon's Crown Vic in the driveway. Jane opened the door and welcomed me in, joining Sharon and Maura in their kitchen. Maura smiled when she saw me and walked over, a red wine in her hand.

"You may need this Brenda" I looked down a little dubiously, but she just held it out and smiled that lovely '_please don't argue with me, this is for your own good'_' smile. "Doctor's orders" I nodded slowly and took it with a small smile, seeing Sharon had a white sitting on the bench in front of her. I took a sip and found it was a very good Merlot, as you'd expect from Maura's wine cellar.

"Thank you, that's real good" I walked over to stand next to Sharon, slipping an arm around her waist as I got a welcoming kiss. "Thanks sweetie, I needed that" I kept my voice low but I was sure the others heard us too. I got a whispered '_love you_' in return, her arm slipping round my waist as well. Jane nodded from where she was leaning back against the benches.

"I called Nat and Ana, they're on the way over" I nodded, after all they were as involved in this as the rest of us. "So we might as well hold over the discussion until they get here, you can tell us all at once" I nodded again, it made sense.

"I'll put something together for dinner" It was Maura, ever the perfect hostess. "Something nice, perhaps a salad…" She paused at the evil eye Jane was giving her. "…and Jane can grill some meat" I glanced at Sharon and saw an amused smile there, she looked at me and I nodded, before she turned back to Maura and offered to help.

The next twenty minutes or so were taken up with defrosting the meat and preparing the salad, Sharon and Maura working easily side by side while Jane and I wandered out and got the gas-fired grill ready. I noticed as she worked that she was still wearing her service weapon, something I'd never seen before at their place but found comforting right now.

Natalie and Ana arrived not long after and by mutual agreement we held off our discussion until dinner was served, though I did notice Ana too was wearing her weapon which she kept on her, normally it went into a locked drawer when they were here. Finally we sat down to a wonderful Greek salad, matched with some marinated lamb steaks and a quiet discussion about what had happened.

Half an hour later, with everything in the dishwasher and coffees in hand, we ended up on their comfy couches, one couple to a couch, looking at each other over the coffee table. Natalie put her cup down with a soft click and leaned back against Ana.

"So they obviously know where you both live, what are you going to do about it?" I looked to Sharon; we were sitting close, holding hands. She looked at me and shrugged.

"Whoever it was took a chance, sneaking into Brenda's place. We know it wasn't a burglary given they tried to hide that they'd been there, so that suggests they don't want us knowing that they know" I nodded, seeing similar nods around the room. Ana frowned then turned to us.

"I don't suppose we could narrow down when it happened; see if we can tie it to one of the Robbery / Homicide suspects" I shook my head.

"Last time I was there was when we left around ten to eight this morning. They had all day, I didn't walk back in until almost six, looking to get a change of clothes before heading to Sharon's" Jane pulled a face, her voice taking on a thoughtful tone.

"Maybe we can. They had to know when you were at your desk, so they'd know where you were when they arranged to break in" I nodded.

"I attended a few meetings outside the Parker Centre today plus we did that walkthrough of the Sterritson murder scene again, I can put together a series of times from my schedule when I get back to my desk tomorrow" Once that was done we could then start comparing it to the movements of the Robbery / Homicide people. Natalie meanwhile looked pensive, before shifting on the lounge and speaking.

"Sooner or later we're going to have to brief Chief Pope in on this. I understand you had your reasons, but it's getting serious and he needs to know" I chewed my lip and looked over at Sharon, to see her nodding slowly at me.

"We're going to have to sooner or later honey, if he's the last to know then he's going to be really pissed, enough so that he may not be receptive to what we have to say" I sighed. I really didn't want Pope sticking his nose in, I was sure nothing good would come of it. Still Sharon had a point. I pulled a face.

"I suppose you're right, it's just that he's not exactly known for his subtle touch" I got a round of chuckles from everyone at that particular observation. Finally I nodded. "I'll tell him soon enough" Maura leaned forward.

"You will have to tell him very soon, I believe he is departing for a conference in New Orleans shortly" I grimaced, I'd completely forgotten about that.

"OK, I'll try and make an appointment in the next day or so" Jane had been sitting back, not saying much for a while.

"Why now?" We all looked over at her sitting there next to Maura. "Why now exactly? There must be a reason they're moving now, what set them off, first they try and follow you, then they do a B&amp;E on your place Brenda, why now?"

There was silence for a bit before Ana spoke.

"Outside of the six of us, who else knows?" We looked around at each other before she spoke again. "The only people who we definitely know are aware that we're looking into this are a couple of people at Justice and Andrea Hobbs" Sharon nodded.

"I trust Andrea" I looked at her and then back at the others.

"I do too, the only person she's likely spoken to is Mikki Mendoza and I trust her too" Jane nodded, turning to look at Ana.

"That makes it almost certainly Justice" She shrugged. "We know there's a leak there, looks like they weren't too careful after you talked to them" Ana nodded.

"I spoke to Lopez over at Justice, he was going to talk to his Witsec section head, plus they have a person who runs the Witsec database, she's the only one cleared to access the witness protection files" I nodded.

"Can you get their names, the section head and the database person, we can try and run them through the system" Maura looked across at me.

'Not Lopez?" Ana shook her head, answering Maura's question.

"Nope, he's only been here about eighteen months, the Witsec killings predate his arrival. Before that he was posted to Europe with Interpol" Maura nodded and sat back, snuggling into where Jane's arm sat comfortably around her shoulders as Ana looked back at me. "I have the names in my notes at work. I'll get them to you tomorrow morning"

I was about to say something when Sharon's phone rang, a strange burble I didn't recognise. She suddenly stood and strode to her bag, dragging out her phone and looking at it, her face paling.

"That's the silent alarm at my place, someone just tripped it" I looked at her for a moment, then Jane and Ana, getting nods in return.

Thirty seconds later we were in Jane's unmarked Crown Vic, lights and sirens cutting through the sparse evening traffic. The trip to Silver Lake that would had taken me thirty minutes in peak-hour traffic took her seven, she cut the lights and siren a few blocks away and the headlights as we turned into Sharon's quiet suburban street, pulling up several houses down and killing the engine. The lights were off in Sharon's, no sign of anyone moving around.

Sharon had her phone out and was talking to the alarm company.

"Yes, police are almost there, is there any movement inside? I see. Please hold" She cupped her hand over the phone. "They say motion sensors are still picking up movement inside" Jane looked at Ana and they nodded before Jane looked back at us.

"Tell them the cops are here and they'll handle it" She did and rang off, as Jane and Anastasia drew their weapons, both automatically checking them almost in synch, before they went to get out of the car. I pulled mine out as well and was about to follow them when they suddenly jumped back in.

"I saw movement" It was Ana. "Someone's leaving" I peered towards Sharon's house, to see one person walking across the lawn, the other doing something at the door, as they turned I saw a cloth in their hand, suddenly realising what he'd been doing.

"Wiping the door handle for prints" Sharon nodded, her face held rigid. I could understand what she was feeling, that was her house and her privacy that had been violated. I saw it and my blood boiled, angry for what was happening to her. Sharon must have seen it, her hand found its way into mine and squeezed it hard as I fought for calm; Sharon needed me here for her, supportive, not angry.

As we watched the burglars walked down the street past several parked cars, before climbing into a car, by the pattern of the tail lights it looked a hell of a lot like another Crown Vic. We watched it pull away from the kerb and head away from us before pulling out after it, lights still off. Once it turned at the first intersection Jane turned her headlights on and followed them, slowly creeping closer through the sparse evening traffic.

Finally we hit a red light, which allowed us to get close enough to see the licence plate; sure enough it was a 'CA Exempt' plate, definitely an unmarked. Taking the number down we dropped back and followed them for another ten minutes, finally seeing them turn into a shopping centre car park where it pulled up alongside another car and stopped as we pulled in and parked just close enough to see them, watching as a man got out of the car.

"Son of a bitch" I turned at Sharon's low, feral voice, to see a look of disgust there. She looked at me and grimaced. "That…individual is Detective Aiden Powell, Kennedy's partner" I nodded as Ana spoke.

"Bet you anything that's Kennedy's unmarked" Jane shook her head as we watched Powell get into the other car, as the first car drove off.

"I don't bet against sure things" She turned to look at us in the back. "What now?"

"We head home" I shook my head. "Your place I mean" We watched in silence as Powell's Crown Vic drove away. Finally Sharon spoke.

"I don't like it either but we're going to have to talk to Pope soon" I nodded, seeing the others doing the same.

"I know, but we need something more tangible. I'll bet they left no prints or other evidence behind them at either of our places" Jane nodded.

"They're in Robbery / Homicide so it makes sense they'd know all the tricks, specially what not to do" I thought about it for a moment, trying to work out an answer until Sharon squeezed my hand, we hadn't really let go since we saw them leaving her place.

"I can get a court order for surveillance of Powell and Kennedy as part of my ongoing OIS investigation. With a warrant we can go to Ruiz in SIS and get surveillance in place" She shrugged. "It'll only be for a few days but that may be enough" Ana nodded.

"Figure they have something in mind; otherwise why take the risk of breaking into your places?" I nodded slowly, as a sense of foreboding grew within me.

"Something's going to happen soon, something bad"


	63. Chapter 63

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**63 Closing in**

Sharon's viewpoint

I was sitting back at my desk thinking. My squad must have picked up on it as they were leaving me in peace, thank god. Really I was lucky to have such good people to work with; despite the scorn that anyone working in FID is subject to from other officers, they were some of the best people in the LAPD, doing a difficult, unrecognised and unrewarding job well.

Right now though I was wishing I was sitting at Brenda's desk just so I could raid her infamous top drawer, some chocolate sounded like a really good idea right now, last night had been a long and stressful evening with not much sleep, it was now early afternoon and I could use the sugar hit.

After staying at Jane and Maura's last night, both of us with our pistol's resting on the bedside tables, we'd headed back to our places this morning and grabbed changes of clothes. Ana and Jane had insisted they accompany us, so Maura and Natalie had headed in together while Ana went with me and Jane with Brenda, making sure it was safe to visit our homes. After a quick shower and fresh clothes we'd headed into work to start another day, just like any other and yet nothing like the ones before it.

Once at my desk I'd called in Andrea Hobbs from the District Attorney's office. I'd worked with her over many years and trusted her to be both discreet and effective. Andrea had dropped by about 9.30 and I'd spent ten minutes or so explaining what had happened and requesting a warrant to conduct surveillance and a look into Kennedy and Powell's finances.

While Andrea had been more than willing to help, particularly when I explained the reasons, she was concerned that we didn't have enough to ask a judge to let us crack open their financials. Despite her misgivings in the end she'd gone to a judge for both warrants, unfortunately she'd been right and we'd only got the surveillance warrant, Andrea explaining that even someone as friendly as Judge Tobias was reluctant to grant a warrant on such flimsy grounds. I didn't like it but I could understand it, Tobias was concerned that if the grounds were too flimsy anything gathered might be ruled inadmissible on appeal, assuming we got enough to take them to trial.

Once Andrea called with the news that we had the surveillance warrant I'd spoken to Commander Ruiz in SIS and explained that Powell and Kennedy were under investigation for what could turn out to be a string of OIS and other charges and we needed to get their phones, email and desks placed under surveillance. I could tell he wasn't too happy to be turning his resources on fellow officers but on the other hand he couldn't really argue with a court order. It also helped that I'd only asked for internal surveillance twice in the last 10 years and both requests had turned out to be completely justified.

Two hours later SIS organised a fire drill to get everyone out of the building long enough to get the bugs set up; half an hour later I'd returned to my office to get a message from Ruiz that everything was in place.

With that as my cue I phoned Sergeant Kennedy and invited him up to my office for a 'follow up' discussion on his OIS. He'd bitched and moaned about it, much as expected, threatening to call his union rep and lawyer but in the end he'd agreed, it wasn't as if he had much choice after all. Upon arrival I had him directed into my interrogation room where he sat, entirely too smugly confident for my tastes. Starting the ball rolling I made some general enquiries about the timeline of the shooting which he'd been comfortable with and then followed up by honing in on the inconsistencies about the bullet placements. He'd dissembled for a while before falling back on that hoary old standby '_he couldn't recall exactly_'.

I picked away at him for twenty minutes, I may not be a CIA-trained interrogator like Brenda but I'd grilled enough recalcitrant cops over the years so I knew how most of them ticked. The majority we looked into were fine, a little scared to have Force Investigation's 'Ice Queen' investigating them, after all FID was the bogey man, the evil organisation that investigated cops and ruined careers. The few bad cops we busted were a tiny fraction of the number of OIS we investigated each year but every cop knew we'd got cops fired or arrested, all for 'just doing their job' or so the stories stated, growing larger and more terrifying with each retelling. Most cops in here were nervous, a little defensive, they usually shot at a suspect because they'd felt they had no choice, shoot or be shot at; in many cases they were right.

Some though had made mistakes that had led to that situation like the recent domestic dispute up in Florence; those two officers, Wade and Ramirez, they'd messed up and the result was a situation that had tragically spiralled out of control. FID's investigation had determined what had gone wrong and recommended responses, both officers pulled off the street and put through refresher courses to correct mistakes they'd made and changes to the LAPD's training to make sure their mistakes weren't systemic. All most cops saw though was a dangerous incident that saw two cops wounded when a suspect started shooting and the cops then censured, to them we were the ones who'd overreacted.

Cops in their situation were often angry and confused, they'd done what they felt was right, what they'd been trained to do, they often got defensive when we pointed out what they'd done wrong, the mistakes they'd made, often they said it was easy to be wise after the event, they'd been there on the spot and made the decision in a split second, usually they then threw in a few barbs about FID officers not understanding what it was like out there, that we didn't know what it was like on the streets, forgetting that every Force Investigation officer had been a uniformed officer and then a detective before transferring here, they knew all too well what happened out there, with their experience here they understood better than most.

Then there were the rogue elements, the cowboys, the trigger-happy ones who shot first and thought later, who behaved like they were in a Hollywood action movie. The ones FID was set up to catch, the cops who thought a gun or a beating was the first, best response to most situations, the rash, the impetuous, the burnt-out and those cops who got off on the power. Some of that fortunately small number we could save, some though we couldn't, they were the ones who we recommended discharge for, well for some, for others the only place for them was a jail sentence, there weren't many of them, maybe one to two a year but according to LAPD rumor mill's horror stories, it was hundreds every year.

Over the years I'd grown to tolerate my job, I didn't love it, not the way Brenda loved hers, I'd taken it because it was the fastest step up to Captain's rank, especially as a woman. Back then there hadn't been all that many slots open for a woman, especially one who'd come in from another force, not grown up in the LAPD. I'd hoped that being seen as woman succeeding in the LAPD, ascending to run a division and gaining Captain's rank would act as a positive role model to other women in the force.

There hadn't been all that many people interested in the role, I'd been the best candidate by far and in due course the promotion had come my way. I may not be liked but I was respected by Pope and the Mayor's office and the Federal Attorney General's people for getting the job done. I'd hoped that I could do my job here for five years or so then move on; unfortunately that wasn't going to happen, I was trapped here by my own competence and the knowledge that I was hated by so many cops, as I'd told my friends that night at the Florence OIS, putting me in charge of a division of cops was a recipe for disaster, something that Pope wasn't going to risk, so I was stuck here in FID until either I retired, something I wasn't planning on anytime soon, or took a job somewhere else.

I'd been actively contemplating that last year, talking to several police department's across the States plus I'd sounded out the Federal Government for an opening with Attorney General's; that had all changed though when Brenda and I became a couple. Now I couldn't see myself going anywhere without her, she was too important to me to contemplate my life without her so in a way I was stuck here investigating people like Kennedy.

Staring at him across the table in my interrogation room, I was struck by his attitude, he wasn't like the majority of the people I see in here, neither loudly professing his innocence nor full of bravado, he was different. He didn't protest, didn't bluster, he behaved like he was waiting me out, that no matter what I said he'd have the last laugh, an attitude I found myself growing irritated with as I picked and pried away at his recollection of events, trying to trip him up, pushing hard enough that he almost stumbled a few times, his 'can't recalls' becoming more and more frequent, to the point I knew he was lying and he knew I knew. He seemed to think we'd find no proof, or if we did it wouldn't matter, only making me more determined to see him crack. To be honest I was secretly enjoying seeing him sweat, after all he'd been in my home last night, pawing through my private life; making him squirm was a downright pleasure after that; one that I eventually admitted to myself I was enjoying perhaps a little too much.

Finally he'd started to stumble as I concentrated on the shot placement Maura had discovered, you could tell he hadn't expected that to come up, his demeanour cracked for the first time, right before he refused to say anything further without his lawyer and union rep present so I'd told him that he could go on his way. As he'd stood I looked across at him and told him bluntly that I thought he had something to hide and I'd keep digging till I found the truth about the death of Robert Dimery. Kennedy had snarled a bit at that before leaving in a foul temper, hopefully I'd prodded him into doing something rash, we'd know soon enough.

Less than an hour later, just as I was finishing a delicious pastrami on rye topped with scrumptious Russian dressing as I worked through some overdue paperwork, I'd received an urgent phone call from SIS, shortly thereafter finding myself sitting alongside Ruiz in an electronics room down on the SIS floor, watching surveillance footage from Robbery / Homicide's squad room. Based on the timestamp Kennedy had walked in right after my session with him and had caught the attention of his partner Powell, Lieutenant Tony Di Marco and surprisingly, or perhaps not, Detective Tony Osmond. A couple of minutes later they'd all ended up sitting at Kennedy's desk, speaking quietly enough that no one nearby would have heard them. Fortunately the surveillance microphone had picked up everything, the video footage wasn't quite in synch with the audio from the bug in his desk but the message came through loud and clear just the same.

"_What's up pal_" It was Di Marco speaking. Kennedy glanced around and grimaced.

"_Just got called in by Raydor_" Powell leaned in.

"_What'd the frigid bitch want?_" I noticed Ruiz glance my way though I didn't show it; it was nothing I hadn't heard before anyway and milder than most, instead I kept my attention on the screen, watching as Kennedy replied.

"_She's sniffing around the Dimery shooting, she's worked out something's wrong_" Powell frowned darkly.

"_Ah shit, I thought that one'd been put to bed_" I have to say Kennedy's grimace was a pleasure to see, though I kept my face impassive for Ruiz's sake, after all I have my reputation as the LAPDs 'Ice Queen' to maintain.

"_Nah, it's still an 'open case' according to her_" He put air quotes around the words. Di Marco was less than impressed.

"_Open case? What the fuck?_" Osmond scratched his head in thought.

"_Yeah, what the hell does that mean?_" Kennedy shook his head angrily.

"_It means she's still sniffing around. She practically accused me of murdering Dimery, then told me she'd keep investigating 'til she got to the bottom of it_"

"_Fuck!_" It was Powell. "_First that FBI woman sniffing around at Justice, then this_" Interesting, that definitely confirmed what had tipped them off to us in the first place, even as Powell shook his head. "_Whadda we do now?_" Di Marco looked round, then back at the others.

"_I don't know about you but I don't see why our nice little money earner should stop just because some dyke bitch sticks her nose where it don't belong_" Kennedy was nodding.

"_Yeah, if she went away, then so does our problem_" Osmond looked down, his voice even lower.

"_I ain't happy with doing another cop, even her_" Kennedy shook his head.

"_We won't be doing it, that'll be someone else_" Powell looked up.

"_Who?_" Kennedy held up his cell phone and waggled it back and forth.

"_I'll talk to our Mexican friend, arrange with him to get the job done_" Di Marco nodded slowly.

"_Makes sense, that way we can all have our alibi's locked down tight when it happens_" Powell nodded enthusiastically.

"_That sounds good, real good_" Kennedy looked round, then back at the other two.

"_It's going to be messy_" Di Marco frowned

"_Whatcha mean, messy? Like it isn't already?_" Kennedy shook his head.

"_It's not just Raydor, she's almost certainly told her girlfriend, Miss Atlanta herself_" Osmond groaned miserably as my head jerked at his words, I saw Ruiz's head turn my way out of the corner of my eye as Osmond's voice came through the speaker, his tone full of despair.

"_This just gets better and better_" Di Marco massaged his temples.

"_So Raydor and Johnson both; we better all have airtight alibi's cause that's going to set off a shit storm_" Kennedy shrugged and I felt my jaw tense as I stared at the screen, I was almost used to threats from cops after years in FID, but to threaten Brenda... I forced myself to calm down as the tape kept rolling and Kennedy spoke.

"_If we want our profitable little arrangement to continue then we need to make sure this ends now, right?_" Di Marco and Powell both nodded. "_I'll call Hernandez and set up a meeting as soon as I can, hopefully today. With luck this'll all go away when they do_" Osmond frowned, a troubled look on his face.

"_Fuck I hope so man. I don't mind the scum getting what they deserve, but other cops..._" Kennedy shrugged.

"_Raydor's not a real cop, she's a rat from IA, if bad things happen to her, well not too many cops'll shed tears for her. As for Johnson...well she knew the risks when she started fucking the LAPDs prize dyke_" I entertained a few fleeting but heartfelt thoughts about walking down into Robbery / Homicide and shooting Kennedy and the rest of them dead where they sat, before forcing myself to calm down. On screen Osmond nodded slowly, then more decisively as he obviously convinced himself of the decision. He missed Kennedy and Powell exchanging a worried glance over his head before he looked up and spoke, his voice firming up.

"_OK, how long until things get cleared up and we can go back to normal?_"

"_As soon as I can, I'll ring Hernandez this morning and try and set something up ASAP_" They nodded and the group split up, heading back to their desks. The tape stopped and Ruiz turned to me, his face an open book.

"Jesus Sharon, what the hell is going on down there?" I took my glasses off and massaged my temples. It was barely past 1 PM and I was already so very bone weary. Finally I looked up to see Ruiz's concerned look, something I was grateful for; I wasn't particularly close to him but his obvious care was very welcome. I slipped my glasses back on, buying time to sort out my own emotions. Finally I nodded slowly and turned to look at him.

"What appears to be some sort of criminal conspiracy, cops killing people in Witsec" Ruiz looked at me and shook his head slowly.

"How many" I knew exactly what he was asking.

"At least five, maybe more, how many more we don't really know" His jaw dropped in shock, before he pulled himself together.

"Fuck, if you're right this could be worse than Rampart" I nodded slowly as he continued. "What now?" I sighed.

"Hopefully we find out what Kennedy wants with this Hernandez person and that leads us to the next step" Ruiz nodded.

"We've got their phone's tapped as per your request, I'll assign some of my best people to follow Kennedy wherever he goes" He frowned. "He did say he'd try and set up a meeting, so we need to make sure we're there when they do" I nodded. That was Ruiz's people job, they were good at it so I needed to trust them to do it right. He looked over at me, concern obvious. "Do you want me to have them arrest them when they meet?" I shook my head.

"We don't have all the pieces of the puzzle, not enough to arrest all of the conspirators, better to pull them all in at once" Ruiz nodded slowly, I couldn't tell if he was agreeing with me or just being polite, before he spoke.

"What will you do now?" I looked back at the screen and grimaced.

"Can I get a copy of that tape?" He nodded.

"Sure, no problem" I smiled.

"Then I need to talk to Chief Johnson, before we both go have a little chat with Chief Pope" It was Ruiz' turn to grimace.

"Oh man, he's gonna love that, you know how he gets about bad PR" I frowned; oh yeah, I knew all about that. Ruiz shook his head slowly, already imagining Pope's reaction. "He's gonna be pissed Sharon"

I smiled, a little cynically to be honest, aware that given what we were about to tell him, our visit was going to be about as welcome as the plague.

"Jose, have you heard that old Chinese curse, 'may you live in interesting times'?" He nodded as I turned and looked back at Kennedy's image, frozen there on the screen then spoke, entirely without humour. "I believe that it's time for Brenda and I to make Chief Pope's life 'interesting' again"


	64. Chapter 64

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**64 Briefing Pope**

Sharon's viewpoint

Normally Pope could be a difficult man to nail down; his PA Belinda was an accomplished expert at keeping people out of the Chief's office when he didn't want them there. However when I explained that Brenda and I would be arriving shortly, appointment or not, and we needed to see him extremely urgently Belinda became very helpful. It helped that ever since Pope had expressed his displeasure when we'd told him we were together we'd normally gone out of our way to avoid seeing him, so for us to push to see him urgently she realised it had to be something very unusual and got us in quickly.

So it was 25 minutes later that we were ushered into his office, where I noticed a suitcase and a carry-on bag sitting near the door, reminding me Pope was heading off soon. Sitting down we wasted no time getting to the heart of the matter; as we'd previously agreed I kicked things off.

"The Chief and I have been looking into a series of OIS involving officers from Robbery / Homicide, starting with the most recent involving Detective Sergeant Kennedy" I saw his face darken but pressed on. "As you may recall I returned an open finding on that investigation"

He nodded once, obviously unhappy but we couldn't let his temper stop us.

"The autopsy results on the Dimery shooting were inconsistent with the statements given by Kennedy and his partner Powell. Together with some inconsistent physical evidence, there was enough there to keep me from closing the investigation" He nodded once, his voice clipped.

"Why bring Chief Johnson into your investigation? It's not her area" I shrugged.

"It came up in conversation and the Chief offered to help, for which I'm grateful, without her assistance I might have missed the important connection that tied them together" His eyebrows rose.

"What connection are you talking about?"

"Several other OIS, when revisited in light of our new suspicions, also turned out to have issues that raised concerns" he was starting to get annoyed, but we needed to walk him through this or he'd not hear us out. Pope's voice was short, with an undertone of irritation that wouldn't take much to turn into anger.

"What sort of issues exactly Commander?" With effort suppressed the smile I felt, given the mess I was about to drop on him.

"Five former Mexican drug cartel members in Justice's WitSec program here in LA have turned up dead, all of them in OIS involving members of Robbery / Homicide" I took an indecent amount of pleasure in seeing his jaw drop and his jowls flap.

"Five?" I nodded, staying impassive, not without a lot of effort, I saw the edge of Brenda's mouth curl in the faintest of barely-there smirks, it wasn't just me that was enjoying messing with him.

"Five" His expression hardened, as did his voice.

"What the hell, how did you miss that?" I felt my gut tighten at his accusation; it was what I'd expected from him but that didn't make it easier. He was right though, I should have picked it up; that was my job after all. Unfazed by my silent castigations Brenda leaned forward in her chair.

"Individually each looked clean; it was only when we had our suspicions and could look at each of the cases side by side that the suspicious factors started to add up" He turned his skeptical gaze on her.

"Suspicious factors? What exactly are you getting at?" I shrugged, trying to project a calm I didn't really feel.

"We were reviewing the Dimery shooting when the Chief here noticed irregularities in Dimery's financial history going back more than three years ago. When we looked deeper it became obvious that his financials were fictitious, something I'd seen years before with a WitSec protectee" Brenda leaned forward, catching his attention as we unconscouscly tag-teamed him.

"Now we knew what to look for we looked at Kennedy's other OIS reports and turned up two more that also looked like the victims were WitSec people" She shrugged. "Each of these three OIS fitted the same pattern, each incidents started from so-called 'anonymous' tips being followed up" She smiled a little lopsidedly as she used air quotes for anonymous. "Once might be an accident, twice might be a coincidence…" She left that thought hanging for a moment before I nodded, jumping in.

"…but three is neither" I finished. "That led us to digging into other Robbery / Homicide OIS reports with fresh eyes and guess what turned up?" He shook his head, the angry bitterness apparent in his voice.

"I'm not going to like the answer am I?" He asked rhetorically. We shook our heads in unison as his jaw tightened. "What?" I glanced across at Brenda, getting a tiny nod of support before I continued.

"Two other OIS, one by Kennedy's partner Detective Powell and the other by Lieutenant Dimarco, both part of Robbery / Homicide, show exactly the same pattern" Brenda nodded, picking up the thread as we worked together, forcing him to keep his attention switching between us, not allowing his anger to fix on a single target, supporting each other here as we did in everything else. it felt easy and natural, protecting each other, all without planning, it just happened.

"Anonymous tip off, apparently shot in self-defence, the victim's background and finances suggesting the victim was in WitSec, the same pattern throughout" Pope sat back, his eyes closed, thinking it through as we exchanged a quick glance. Finally he opened his eyes and looked at me.

"Do you have anything further to confirm they were in federal protection?" I smiled, which made Pope look up curiously. "And?"

"Justice confirmed all of our victims were in WitSec" He looked intrigued; hardly surprising really, Justice weren't renowned for playing nicely with others.

"How in hell did you get Justice to cooperate?" Brenda just smiled at him.

"Agent Romanov can be very persuasive, as I'm sure you'd agree" Pope nodded once.

"Yes she can. Have either of you raised this with Commander Taylor? It is his division after all" I shook my head as Brenda flung herself back in her seat.

"God no Will, of course not" Pope sat back and rested his elbows on his seat arms, peering at us over his steepled fingers as his voice took on a lecturing tone.

"I know neither of you have had the best of relationships with him, particularly recently, but as the head of Robbery / Homicide he needs to know about an investigation into his people" Brenda shook her head vigorously, sending blonde curls bouncing.

"No he does not. He hates me and really dislikes Sharon so he'll immediately discount anything we say, more than likely telling Kennedy and Powell everything and calling in the union" I turned from looking at her to look at Pope.

"Precisely, thereby preventing us from closing the case" he raised an eyebrow, skepticism writ large on his face and in his voice.

"What case Commander, all you have at the moment are some suspicions" At our hard looks he held up his hand placatingly. "Valid suspicions I'll grant you but suspicions only none the less" Brenda shook her head again, her voice becoming almost playful.

"Oh no Will, we have so much more than that" His head turned slowly and he peered at Brenda suspiciously, one eyebrow rising; obviously he recognised that tone, more he recognised when she had something no one else knew, when he spoke you could hear the wariness in it.

"Well?" Brenda looked over at me as I pulled my laptop out of its bag and woke it up, before standing and walking round to Pope's side of the desk. Brenda rose and walked round the other side as I set it down in front of him.

"We sought and were granted a surveillance warrant on Kennedy at his desk in relation to the open OIS, SIS got the camera's and bugs in place this morning and this is the results of that surveillance" Pope started spluttering, wariness forgotten in his anger.

"You're conducting surveillance inside headquarters on serving officers! The union's going to have a field day with this. Why the hell didn't you clear this with me? I wouldn't have approved this without a lot more evidence" Brenda's mouth twisted with annoyance.

"Will, for heaven's sake, shut up and watch this, then tell me if we did the wrong thing" He turned to look at her, his face hardening, as did his voice, each word tight and clipped with anger.

"I beg your pardon?" Brenda didn't back down, staring at him and smiling.

"If you don't agree that what you're about to see is worth your time, you can have my badge" Pope rocked back in his seat, obviously shocked at her statement. I smiled; with what we had to show him we were safe as houses so it was worth messing with him.

"You can have mine too" His head swung to me and his eyes narrowed as he looked between us, silent for a moment as he thought it through, Pope was many things but he was no fool.

"Obviously whatever you have's gotta be pretty strong stuff" Brenda smiled, her voice a low, sultry purr as I suddenly felt a twinge of jealousy; I associated that voice with entirely different pursuits, to hear her using it on anyone else, let alone Pope…

"Oh Will, you have no idea" I suddenly saw Pope lean away from her, obviously he didn't have the same pleasant memories of that voice, It occurred to me that her voice was as much a part of her arsenal as her looks, I'd seen enough of her in interrogation rooms using her looks, charm and that honey-tinged voice to get what she wanted, tearing strips off Will Pope in a voice oozing sex wasn't that much a stretch. In fact I could well imagine Brenda eviscerating him with that same sultry voice, probably after they split up all those years ago, an unpleasant reminder of what he'd lost. Pope looked uncertain and awkward, desperately trying to cover it by sitting back in his seat and waving at the laptop.

"Very well then, what do you actually have?" I finished setting up the video as I spoke.

"I called Kennedy in for a chat this morning, to discuss his OIS; the intention was to rattle his cage, something in which I obviously succeeded. This tape was recorded less than fifteen minutes later. I hit play and for the next few minutes he watched as Brenda and I exchanged a very satisfied look over his head. Finally it ended, leaving the silence, loud in his office as Pope stared at the screen, obviously rattled. Finally he pulled himself together and spoke.

"Good god" Pope turned to look at me. "They want you dead" He looked up at Brenda, his face pale. "They want you both dead" I nodded as Brenda spoke, her voice deliberately casual.

"Very dead in fact" He looked at her as I picked up my laptop and made my way back to my seat, Brenda following my cue and doing the same. Pope's eyes followed us as we sat down, before asking the most obvious question.

"Why?"

Over the next fifteen minutes we walked him through what we had, the evidence, the Justice connection, being followed, the break-ins at both our houses, identifying Powell and Kennedy, everything. By the end of it he was tiredly rubbing at his eyes.

"It's hard to believe, multiple detectives involved..." His voice trailed off. "What now?" I shrugged.

"At the moment all we have is Powell and Kennedy for break and enter of my house, everything else is uncorroborated talk, something that, given the level of distaste and anger directed at me, could easily be written off by a clever defence lawyer as angry talk" I frowned unhappily. "I want to roll them up, all of them at once, then deliver them to Andrea Hobbs wrapped up in a nice neat bundle with enough proof to send them away for the rest of their lives" Pope nodded slowly, as LAPD Chief the last thing he wanted was for a group of his detectives to be arrested on capital charges then walk due to lack of evidence, that would be his worst nightmare come to life.

"Very well, I can understand that, so I take it you will continue to observe and investigate?" Brenda nodded.

"SIS has a team watching Kennedy, hopefully we'll be able to learn more from any further meetings or contact with this Hernandez person. We have their work phones tapped and we're getting a court order for personal phones an email" He nodded slowly.

"I have to leave for New Orleans in..." He checked his watch. "…less than four hours. I'm delivering a presentation that I can't get out of it, so I want you to hold off on doing anything rash until I'm back" Anger flared at his words and I couldn't hold my tongue, my voice cold and sharp.

"That would depend on what exactly you might consider rash Chief" Brenda wasn't hanging back either, her voice getting that insolent tone she gets when she's getting really, really angry.

"I don't know about you Will but I kinda consider being murdered rash!" He held up his hands in a placating manner, his voice trying to be soothing and failing.

"That's not what I meant; just don't do anything that might generate any adverse media until I get back. I'm due back in five days, so hold off until then. That's all I'm asking" I stared at him for a moment, then looked to Brenda, who returned my gaze then nodded once before I turned back to stare at Pope, my voice flat.

"It's our intention to continue gathering evidence on this case, not just on Kennedy and Powell, but the other members of Robbery / Homicide. I want to arrest them all at once, making sure we have enough to convict all of them for murder and criminal conspiracy to commit murder" Pope looked back and forth between me and Brenda for a few seconds then nodded, given the evidence we'd amassed he really couldn't dare say no.

"So what now" I shrugged.

"Hopefully SIS will get some usable information from the surveillance of Kennedy and this Hernandez person, which will in turn lead us to further evidence" Brenda nodded then, obviously deciding we'd pushed hard enough spoke up, her voice soothing.

"Will, we didn't expect to find anything like this when we first started, no one was more surprised than us, especially when we discovered how far they were willing to go" Pope looked at her, then me, then back to Brenda, before nodding.

"Very well, you can keep investigating but keep a lid on it until I get back" We both nodded, not that we intended to stop even as he spoke again. "And take care of yourselves, stay safe for god's sake" I was touched by his concern, though a little voice inside me was suggesting it had more to do with the mess having anything happen to either of us would cause him.

"We will" I murmured as Brenda smiled.

"You can be sure that's our priority too, the safety thing I mean" Pope looked at her and sighed.

"OK, where do you go from here?" Brenda glanced across at me then back to him.

"As you can imagine, based on the info we have here, plus whatever we can get from Kennedy's meeting, we're waiting on the warrant for financials and surveillance on the homes of each member of Robbery / Homicide currently implicated. DDA Hobbs is chasing that up now" I nodded in support then looked over at Pope.

"As you can imagine, there is a massive Federal investigation that will break the moment this becomes public. After all it's a direct attack on the integrity of the whole Witness Protection program. Agent Romanov has been assisting us with our investigation, but is not yet aware of this latest threat. We hope to convince her to let us continue to lead the investigation and for her to continue to assist us, keeping it in-house for as long as possible" I smiled, knowing Pope would want this an LAPD-led investigation, if only to try and control the extent of the fallout, though he had a snowball's chance in hell of that once this broke.

"That's acceptible" I saw the corner of Brenda's mouth curl in the tiniest of smirks, as if Pope's agreement mattered one iota to us, after all it wasn't his life on the line. Pope looked across at us, his brow furrowing, "What exactly are you proposing next?" I looked across at Pope, then back to Brenda, seeing the same determination that I felt playing across her face. She spoke before I could reply.

"Given everything we've learned, I don't see us holding back at all, whatever it takes to close the investigation" I nodded, looking back at Pope, seeing the pensive look on his face. He looked troubled, probably wondering how big a can of worms we were opening, what mess we'd create that he'd have to deal with. Good luck with that, based on what we'd learned this debacle would make the whole Rampart scandal look like a picnic, nothing compared to this god-awful mess. He looked between us, his voice tentative, probably still worrying about the union's reaction to what we were doing.

"What limits do you have?" I snorted my disgust before I could hold it in.

"Limits, for them?" I looked across to Brenda and saw the same well hidden rage and fire in her eyes I was feeling. Limits for murderers, potential cop killers? What the hell was he thinking? I smiled, as coldly and nastily as I could muster, keeping my voice as flat as I could manage.

"Absolutely none whatsoever"


	65. Chapter 65

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**65 Windows to assassination**

Sharon's viewpoint

I've been in tense meeting rooms before but nothing like this, not that I could remember. As I looked at the people sitting around the room I saw the same shock, disbelief, outrage and anger that I was feeling reflected on the faces there, even Andrea Hobbs wore the same look as the rest of us.

My eyes sought out Brenda's even as hers sought mine and we spoke without words, silent reassurance and care but really all I wanted to do was hold her close and kiss her and forget what we'd just learned, drive away the thoughts that someone was so callously planning on trying to take her away from me. Intellectually I knew they wanted us dead but to hear it spoken of so matter of factly... Finally Brenda spoke, her voice reflecting the aftershocks of what we'd just heard.

"Well, I've never had the privilege of hearing my own murder planned" Her mouth twisted. "I probably should be offended that killing me is only worth twenty five thousand though" I forced myself to calm down as Brenda made light of it, it was her way of coping. Sanchez shook his head slowly, his face impassive though his eyes showed his anger.

"Don't be Chief, going rate for a hit on the streets about a thousand if you know the right gangers. Twenty five's top of the line pricing" Brenda nodded and forced out a smile, most people wouldn't have caught it but I could see it was a little shaky.

"That's good to know, thank you Detective" She looked around the room and pushed out a slightly wider smile. "Personally, the idea of Commander Raydor and I being worth the same is a travesty, after all a Deputy Chief is worth a lot more than a Commander" I stared at her for a second, then forced a smile as I realised she was making jokes about it, partly to calm her team, who were teetering on the edge, but also to calm herself as well. I nodded to myself, time to play my part.

"What's obvious is that they have no idea of exactly who they're dealing with, if they did they'd naturally be charging more for me" Brenda's eyebrow lifted, she was waiting for a punchline I could tell. "When you think about it, they could probably take up a collection around headquarters, I'm sure they'd have no problem raising well in excess of twenty five thousand just by passing the hat around" I watched as her team gaped at me for a moment, I could practically see the unspoken thoughts around the room. '_They've just found out there's a contract on them and they're joking about it?_'

I smiled at Brenda as our personal legend grew just that little bit more, watching as her smile matched mine.

"More people may hate you than me Commander, but it's the quality not quantity, of your enemies that's important" I snorted.

"Quantity has a quality all of its own" She looked at me for a second, her smile widening.

"Perhaps you're right. Let's hope no one gets to collect" I saw Sanchez and Gabriel exchanging a look; one I could read from here. '_Over my dead body_' was the shared thought. For a moment I almost smiled at their protectiveness, David and Julio were her Praetorian Guard, Brenda's self-appointed guardians, keeping her safe was their job, one they took very seriously indeed. Brenda sat back and looked at me, her smile fading. "So what now?" There was silence for a second as I gathered my thoughts, then spoke.

"Let me talk to Lieutenant Elliot, get some of my people up on the administrative floor and down in the morgue" Brenda smiled and nodded.

"Thank you Commander, that's good thinking, we need to secure their safety first off" I pulled out my cell as Flynn spoke.

"We'd better get Jane and Ana in here, they're on the list too" I nodded, they needed to know about the threat. Brenda nodded once.

"Lieutenant Flynn, would you please be kind enough to ask them both to make their way in here, where is Detective Rizzoli anyway?" Provenza looked up.

"She was out on the mid-afternoon coffee run, left just before you called us in here, she should be back any minute" Brenda nodded at Andy Flynn.

"Then please call Special Agent Romanov and ask her to make her way here at her earliest convenience if you would be so kind" I smiled a little, Brenda's sense of manners was as much a part of her as her accent, unshaken in spite of everything.

I called Elliot and got things rolling; Lucy Kwang would shadow Maura while Mark Rosenberg would keep an eye on Natalie. Things had moved fast since my meeting with Ruiz and our subsequent briefing with Pope yesterday, faster than I'd anticipated actually, we were still playing catch up.

The next twenty minutes passed quickly as we discussed what we'd heard, the whole Major Crimes team had opinions, ranging from arresting them all right now to just shooting them where they sat, before Anastasia walked in, chatting to Jane and helping carry in some of the afternoon's coffee order. Seeing us in the conference room they made their way over as Sanchez opened the door, drawing thanks from them both as Jane grinned.

"Coffee everyone, meeting fuel" As they were passed out, Ana looked over at where Brenda was sitting.

"I got your message and was on the way up when Jane arrived in the lift, so I gave her a hand. What's up Chief?"

"I'm pleased that you both arrived together, we have some information you both need to hear" Jane and Ana shared a quick glance and then looked back at Brenda, as Jane nodded.

"Sure Chief, what's the problem?"

"We have a surveillance tape of a meeting between Detective Sergeant Kennedy of Robbery / Homicide and a Sinaloa cartel rep, it's got some… disturbing things on it" She turned to Buzz. "Could you run the tape again please Buzz, just the key sections?" He nodded and Kennedy's voice came through, clear despite the background noises of traffic and footsteps in the downtown LA café where they'd met.

"_So what __is it__ you want that was so urgent?_" It was the faintly-accented voice of the Sinaloa cartel's representative; Hernandez apparently.

"_It looks like there may be a problem with our little arrangement. Two female cops have been digging into some of __our jobs, the Witness Protection ones__, they're starting to put things together and we need them dealt with_" Kennedy's voice was calm; he might have been talking about the weather, the cartel's man equally so.

"_Who are they?_"

"_One's the head of the department's internal investigation section, the part that looks into cop shootings, Commander Sharon Raydor_" I felt a ball of ice form in my stomach; it wasn't any easier to hear the second time round. I saw both Jane's and Ana's eyes flick across to me, concern and shock obvious. "_The other is the head of Major Crimes, Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson_" I watched Brenda's jaw tighten as Jane and Ana's heads swung to look at her, their faces first reflecting even more shock, then anger. There was surprise evident in the cartel man's voice as he spoke.

"_You don't ask for much do you? Two senior __cop__s dead, that'll draw some heat_"

"_If you want our little arrangement to continue you need to get rid of both of them_" There was silence for a few seconds then the cartel man spoke again.

"_It's going to cost you_" Kennedy gave a sigh and spoke.

"_How much_"

"_Twenty five thousand each_"

"_What!_"

"_That's the price_" The outrage in Kennedy's voice was obvious.

"_That's a shit load of money_"

"_These aren't your normal targets; you're paying for professionals, for certainty and an airtight alibi. Evidence will be planted to make it look like a home invasion robbery gone wrong_" I could hear the curiosity in Kennedy's voice.

"_How in hell do you do that?_"

"_We'll make sure there's a body left behind, a ganger, killed with one of the cop's guns. Don't worry, we've done this before. The result will be an investigation leading away from you into a dead __end, one that will withstand any investigation"_

"_OK, it's expensive but…yeah, ok_"

"_Don't worry, you won't have to pay us, we'll just take it out of your next few fees_"

"_I guess so_"

"_How soon do you need it done?_" At the cartel man's words I could hear the change in tone in Kennedy's voice, relief perhaps?

"_Soon, I just need to know when it's going to happen, that way I can make sure all of us have ironclad alibis_" The cartel man's voice was considering.

"_Probably tomorrow night at the earliest, I need to get some experienced people up from back home to do the job. Late at night at their homes would be best_"

"_I have their addresses; they're __both dykes' in__volved with __each __another__ actually __so they could be at either of these addresses at night_"

"_That would make it easier and neater, kill them both in the same place and make it look like a robbery or home invasion gone wrong_" Jane gestured to Buzz, who stopped the tape before she looked across at Brenda.

"Ok, when was this recorded_?_" Brenda shrugged.

"About three hours ago in a coffee shop in a shopping centre downtown. SIS did a great job on the recording" Jane looked around the room and scowled.

"So when do we arrest Kennedy and the rest of them, looks like we have enough to take them all down now" Ana nodded.

"That's enough there to convince a jury to convict right there" Andrea shook her head once.

"Kennedy yes, without a doubt, the rest though…" She got a filthy look from Jane.

"What exactly do we need then, someone to actually die?" Andrea didn't look offended, she knew it was just Jane's stress talking, besides she knew something Jane didn't. Brenda shook her head and spoke.

"There's something else on the tape you need to hear first. Buzz, if you would?" He nodded and the tape started again, Kennedy's voice filling the room.

"_That would work. It might work out well for__ all of__ us__ actually_" The cartel man's voice was curious.

"_Oh, how so?_"

"_If Johnson gets killed, the path will be clear for my boss, Taylor, to move __across __to head Major Crimes. He's so useless that nothing will get done with him in charge, hobbling Major Crime's investigations. He hates Johnson with a passion and can't wait to take over there, he just needs an opening_" I could see the dark scowls across Brenda's squad at the mention of Taylor's name; he'd gone out of his way to make enemies here, even Mike Tao's normally impassive face was twisted like he'd just tasted something foul. The cartel man's voice was slow, obviously thinking it over.

"_I see the potential_" The smile in Kennedy's voice came through the tape.

"_Oh it gets better. Raydor's death will cripple Force Investigation, making it more likely that any further investigations into our little jobs are easier to skate through"_ I frowned, they were underestimating the people in my team badly, really badly in fact. Kennedy was still speaking.

_"__It also means that with Taylor gone to Major Crimes there's a good chance for Di Marco to step up to be interim head of Robbery/Homicide. Who knows, they may even make him permanent head, which__'__d make it even easier for us to do our jobs for you_" There was silence for a moment, then Hernandez' voice came though, slow and thoughtful.

"_I can see the benefits for our little arrangement_" Kennedy, now a deal had been done and he'd laid out the benefits, was a lot more confident.

"_Good, cause there's another part to the job I need done_"

"_Yes?_"

"_We need several other people silenced too. Raydor and Johnson may have told four other women about what they know, friends of theirs who have been helping out on the investigation_"

"_Who are they?_" Kennedy's voice was matter of fact; he might as well have been reading a laundry list.

"_The head coroner, the department's PR woman, a bureau agent and a detective in Johnson's squad_" I saw both Jane and Ana's heads come up at the words before they swung to look at each other then back at us, Jane marginally beat Ana.

"What the fuck?"

"Where are they?" We all knew who Ana meant; Buzz stopped the recording at Brenda's wave as she spoke.

"They're both at their desks, here in the building" She nodded at me. "We have officers from FID keeping a discreet watch on them both. They're safe" A look was exchanged between them both, the message exchanged all too easily read, someone was going to die.

I understood where they were coming from; I'd been a uniformed beat cop once, ages ago, but Brenda had come from intelligence with the CIA into police work, she'd not been a street cop, her exposure to crime had generally been at arm's length. In some respects Brenda's approach was like an academic exercise and the chance to match wits with criminals across an interrogation room.

Both Jane and Ana were warriors though, used to death and killing. I'd seen their records; both had fought to protect others and had spilt blood, killed to do so, both more than once; Jane on the streets of Boston and Anastasia in Iraq and Afghanistan and again in Seattle with the Bureau. Given their extremely protective natures a threat to Maura or Natalie was a death sentence to anyone stupid enough to want to harm their lovers. I knew we had to calm them down now or Kennedy was a dead man. I leaned forward.

"The tape you heard was recorded at lunchtime today, the representative from the Sinaloa Cartel stated it would be at least a full day before their hit men were available to do the job. You'll all be staying somewhere else tonight and until we can catch them" They shared another look, before turning to look at me.

"What about you and Brenda?" It was Ana. "What's being done to keep you safe?" I nodded, grateful for their care.

"We'll be staying somewhere else tonight; we just have to work out where. Probably a LAPD safe house…" I was interrupted by Andy Flynn's vigorous shaking of his head.

"No way; we know they have a network within the LAPD, how in hell can you be sure what's safe and what's not?" Sanchez frowned.

"He's right Commander, we may need to rethink this" Brenda looked exasperated.

"Oh for heaven's sake, we can check into a hotel if we have to" Gabriel's frown matched Sanchez's.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea Chief, the LAPD's computers can query LA hotel databases, it'd have to be under an assumed name and paying cash, otherwise it'll show up" As Mike Tao nodded in agreement Provenza's eyebrows rose.

"That is unless you have a complete set of fake identities and credit cards available?" Brenda smiled a trifle sardonically.

"Gentlemen, I may have been in the CIA, but I was no Jane Bond, I left that sort of shenanigans to the professionals" There were strained smiles as she looked round the room. "We'll find something" I was about to say something when my phone rang, the caller ID telling me it was Natalie's cell phone.

"Pardon me, it's Natalie" I saw Ana's head swing to me as I held up a hand to forestall her. "Natalie, it's Sharon, how can I help?"

"_Afternoon Sharon, you might be able to explain why one of your officers is lurking on the floor up here, trying to keep tabs on me. He's trying to be discreet but he looks as out of place as a canary at a cat show_" I smothered a nervous laugh, she was right.

"What tipped you off?"

"_Him following me out when I went to the ladies, then having him lurking in the corridor when I came out, before oh so carefully following me back in to where he could keep an eye on my office_" I smiled at Ana as I spoke.

"Perhaps you might like to come down to Major Crime's conference room and please bring Detective Rosenberg with you"

"_Ok, I hope you've got a good explanation for the cloak and dagger though, he's starting to spook some of my staff_"

"Come on down and I'll fill you in"

"_Ok, see you soon_" The call ended and I looked around.

"Natalie spotted her shadow and wanted an explanation. We'd better get Maura up here too" Jane nodded and pulled out her cell as she walked out of the conference room. She was back in a minute.

"Maura's on her way, apparently she was having an interesting discussion with one of your detectives, a Lucy Kwang?" I nodded. "Apparently she wandered in to ask Maura some questions about DNA analysis, that was half an hour ago and Maura was just getting started" Jane smiled ruefully around the room as she ran her hand through her hair a little sheepishly. "Maura doesn't usually get an interested audience when she gets technical; I think Kwang got more than she bargained for"

There was a quick ripple of nervous laughter around the room at that. All of us had learned not to ask for too technical an answer from Maura unless absolutely necessary, she loved knowledge, the more obscure the better, the only thing she enjoyed more was sharing her joy in that knowledge; poor Lucy.

We kicked things around for a few minutes until first Natalie then Maura arrived, both with their 'shadows'. It only took a few minutes to bring them up to speed; to my surprise both took it in their stride, until I realised both had complete and utter confidence in their partners to protect them.

We'd got to the part where we were still trying to work out a place to stay that no one would know about when Anastasia looked up.

"There's a Bureau safe house I know of, it's not being used at the moment, we could crash there" Gabriel frowned.

"Can you trust the Bureau knowing" She shrugged.

"I'm not going to tell them; the fewer people in the know the better. I have the address, we can pop the locks to get in" There were nods all round before Brenda spoke.

"Then what we'll do is send you home to pick up several changes of clothing and then we'll meet somewhere else around seven. We can coordinate that by cell. We'll spend the night courtesy of the Bureau and tomorrow we should have a better idea of where we're at" Brenda turned to Andrea who'd been sitting quietly, taking everything in.

"The next piece of business is for DDA Hobbs here. We need their home phones and email all tapped plus access to their financials. We'll need a court order but we need it quick smart. Do you see any problems Andrea?" The blonde attorney shook her head.

"Not with what we've got now, I'll go back to Judge Tobias; he's normally good for warrants when we really need them and with the info we have now he should happily sign off on letting us into their financials" Lucy Kwang looked round the room then turned back to us, well me.

"Given the info we have, particularly the evidence from that tape, why don't we just arrest them all?" I shrugged.

"We'd only get Kennedy and maybe Powell and while we know for sure that there are others involved, we need to link them all together with ironclad proof otherwise we won't be able to wrap them all up. I don't want any others left uncaught, otherwise this won't stop" I could see neither Jane nor Ana were exactly happy with the answer but they'd have to be for the moment. Brenda could see it too.

"Which is why DDA Hobbs will be getting us those court orders, so we can roll the whole lot of them all up at once" She looked across at Andrea. "You don't see a problem?" Andrea shook her head, glancing down at the pad full of notes in front of her.

"No Chief, based on what you have on that tape and the other evidence suggesting a criminal conspiracy, we should be able to have the court order later this afternoon or early tomorrow, then we can get the home intercepts in place" Brenda smiled.

"Right then, Lieutenant Tao, could you please work with Buzz to arrange to get direct feeds from the intercepts. I'll talk to Commander Ruiz if you run into any issues" Next she turned to Gabriel. "Sergeant Gabriel, once we get access to their financials can you start looking for anything out of the ordinary. Both Kennedy and Di Marco mentioned a profitable arrangement so that money's got to show up somewhere" He nodded before Brenda turned and looked over to where Maura was sitting with Jane standing against the wall behind her.

"Detective Rizzoli, would you and Doctor Isles head on home and pick up enough clothes and such to last say four days? Same for you Miss Dearing, if you or Agent Romanov can text us the address where we're all staying tonight that'd be appreciated. We can all meet there around seven tonight. As for the rest of you, we need to plan how we're going to capture these two cartel people tomorrow night, assuming they'll try and make their move at either the Commander's or my place"

There were nods all round, people had things to do, there was a general surge as everyone stood and made their way out the door, splitting up into groups, her squad back to their desks, the girls to head home and grab what they needed for the next few days, leaving Brenda and I with Andrea, Lucy and Mark. Andrea sat back and looked at us.

"What now?' Brenda and I exchanged a look before I spoke.

"Now we keep an eye on our suspects while we wait for their move" I shrugged. "Just another normal day at the office"" She snorted lightly.

"Good luck with that" Andrea swung in her seat, looking out at the main room, her eyes following first Jane and then Ana before coming back to look at both of us.

"Are you sure it's wise to leave them on the case, given the threats?" Brenda tilted her head to the side as she looked at Andrea, her voice soft.

"Andrea, could you seriously see us pulling them off it, would they even let us?" Andrea looked back out to see Jane packing up while Maura waited, Ana and Natalie having already left, then pulled a face as she turned back to us.

"The defence could have a field day with this if anything goes wrong" I shrugged.

"Can you imagine Mikki walking away after that sort of threat to you" She was silent for a moment as I smiled, seeing Brenda match it. "I thought so. Look, as long as we contain the threat they'll play nice" Brenda nodded.

"Andrea, if Ana and Jane know that Maura and Natalie are safe, they're safe. It's only if there's a threat that's not contained that they're likely to turn dangerous" Brenda shrugged. "If anything happened to Maura or Natalie though…" She paused, her eyes unfocussed as she imagined the results. "God help Kennedy and Powell and the rest of the cops we've implicated though. They'd probably all be dead before we could get them into custody" Her eyes came back to us, "Not that I'd blame them, or even particularly try and stop them"

I could see Andrea was nodding slowly. Brenda had commented that Mikki and Jane were similar personalities; Andrea was probably imagining Mikki's reaction in the same circumstances. Finally she nodded.

"You're right, it wouldn't be pretty" Brenda stood.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Can you get onto the judge and we'll get moving on the rest" Andrea nodded and stood, collecting her bag before heading out. Brenda looked up after her.

"Oh Andrea, there's one more thing" Andrea stopped and turned at the door at Brenda's call.

"Yes Chief?"

"If I was you, I'd stay at Mikki's place for the next few nights" She looked at us both for a second, a slight frown furrowing her brow as she thought it through before nodding slowly.

"Good idea" She turned and walked out, already reaching for her cell. 


	66. Chapter 66

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**66 ****The Reinhold Case**

Jane's viewpoint

We'd spent last night at the Bureau safe house, keeping a low profile and staying away from anywhere we might be spotted, just in case. It turned out to be a quiet night; none of us were feeling all that great all things considered so by mutual agreement we'd ended up in bed early, Maura and I spending almost an hour holding each other close while we talked before finally falling into a restless, fitful sleep. I'd woken several times with a start, each time finding Maura lying safely asleep in my arms, no matter how horrible the nightmare, the knowledge she was safe helped calm me down.

Where the night before had been quiet, this morning was anything but, getting six of us out of there in the morning had been a bit chaotic, eventually Ana and I decided that to save some time we'd shower at the gym in the Parker Centre, giving the others some extra time to get ready which they turned out to need. Once at headquarters we'd split up and headed our own ways, though staying focussed on the job was proving difficult, my mind kept drifting off work constantly, thinking about the mess we were in and worrying about Maura, wondering what'd happen to her if I wasn't around to protect her. Finally, giving up any semblance of doing any productive work I wandered up to Ana's office and found her staring off into the distance, obviously preoccupied, almost certainly for the same reasons I was. I knocked on the door; bringing her back from wherever she was.

"Hey" She smiled and waved me in.

"Jane, have a seat, what's up?" I shrugged as I wandered over and sat in one of her visitor's chairs.

"Worrying mostly" She nodded like she'd already worked that out then spoke.

"About Maura right, completely understandable" I nodded in return, idly picking at the scar on my right hand with my left thumb, it was a nervous habit I'd tried to break, for Maura's sake if nothing else, but I wasn't doing too well right now as I looked up and spoke.

"Yeah, what's gonna happen if something happens to me and I can't protect her?" Ana pulled a face and nodded once before sitting back and speaking, her voice soft and soothing.

"It ain't gonna happen, we know they're coming, we'll have the drop on them, they won't even see us coming"

"I know that's probably how it'll go down, but these people, they're targetting all of us, including Maura. That scares me"

"I understand that but what way particularly is it getting to you?"

"You and me, the Chief, Sharon, we're cops; we signed onto this job knowing there's a chance one day we won't come home. That's part of the job, there are people out there who hate us because of who and what we are, what we represent" I unconsciously swapped palms and started picking at the scar on my left palm. "Maura and Nat didn't sign up for that, they're not supposed to be in the cross hairs, they're supposed to be safe" Ana looked at me for a moment, then nodded slowly.

"Yeah, but from what I've heard Maura's had her own collection of close shaves, Nat not so much, but I think both of them realise that simply through their jobs they're a target. Maura's evidence sends people to jail, Nat's the face of the LAPD, there are people who will hate them simply because they're good at their jobs" She pursed her lips as her eyes unfocused for a moment, obviously thinking of something, before those grey eyes suddenly sharpened, taking me in. "Nat and I had this talk when she first decided to start work with the Seattle PD. She told me that if the job was important enough to do and do right, then the job was worth the risks"

"Yeah, but this isn't a general dislike because of who they work for, the cartel's killers are on their way here right now to kill us, to kill them. Not because they're good at their jobs but because they're with us" She nodded.

"Agreed, but the fact they're with us is the reason they're going to stay safe" I looked up at her as she kept on. "Honestly, there's only one other person I trust to keep Nat safe and that's you. You'd do whatever you have to in order to keep her safe, same as I would for Maura" She shrugged. "That when it comes down to it, you'll do whatever it takes" I nodded slowly, her words resonating in my mind as I found myself whispering them back.

"Whatever it takes" I sat there for a moment staring away into the distance when I suddenly became aware that Ana had risen and moved around the desk, sitting in the other visitor's chair, her knees next to mine as she leaned forward, her head close.

"Yep, whatever it takes. I know you won't hesitate if it comes to that decision, that situation. When it comes to protecting the ones we love we're warriors first, cops second" I pursed my lips at that as I considered her words, then looked up at her, she was right, I'd do whatever was necessary to ensure they both came out of this alive and unharmed.

"If it comes down to that, well it's no contest" She nodded slowly at my words then replied.

"No it's not; that's a decision I came to a very long time ago, keep her safe and to hell with the consequences" She was right, I felt the same.

"Same here, no matter what, I keep Maura safe" Ana nodded then leaned forward as she took my hands in hers, turning them palm up as her thumbs swiped soothingly round and round my scars, the pressure and slowly building warmth from them breaking up the tension in the palms. I didn't let many people touch them, only three or four people had, only the people I trusted. We were quiet for about thirty seconds before she spoke, her voice quiet.

"Nothing's going to happen to them Jane. We'll protect them. If that means we take a bullet on their behalf..." She shrugged. "Well that's also a choice I made a long time ago" I thought about it. I hadn't really considered it in those terms but she was right, if it came down to her or me taking a bullet, it'd be me without a second's hesitation. I looked up at her, catching her eye even as her thumbs continued their work.

"If something happens to me…" she interrupted before I could continue.

"It won't" I pushed on regardless, I had to say this.

"If it does, promise me that you'll keep Maura safe" She looked back at me levelly then spoke; her voice calm and certain.

"With my life" I nodded, I couldn't ask for more than that. Ana turned my hands over and started working on the scars on the back of my hands, though they didn't hurt as much as my palms had then continued. "If anything did happen, I'd get them the hell out of LA, head back to Wyoming, plenty of space there to see them coming, plus the Dearings have plenty of friends up there" I nodded as continued. "Besides up there some Mexican cartel hit men would stand out like dog's balls, if they came after us, well Wyoming has a lot of empty ground and I have a shovel" I smiled a little at her joke then spoke.

"Probably a good idea, if it was me I'd head to Boston, we've got friends back there and a whole damned police force for backup" I sighed. "If they did come after us there I'd even go to Paddy Doyle, he may hate me but he'd use his mob connections to keep her safe" She gave me a little nod then smiled.

"It won't come to that" I sighed again then looked up at her.

"God I hope not" Her thumbs stilled as I realised the worst of the pain had gone, not just because of Ana's massage, then she spoke.

"God has nothing to do with it" I glanced up, asking a question that had been bothering me.

"How can you be so calm about this?" She let go of my hands and sat back then spoke, her voice quiet.

"Been here before" She massaged her temples for a moment, then continued talking, her eyes far away. "We'd go out after insurgent leaders, chasing intel that may or may not be correct. More than once we'd hear from other sources that somehow our plans had leaked" She shrugged. "Probably someone in the local Iraqi or Afghan armed forces or police was playing both sides of the street, it happened all the time. Anyway it meant they knew we were coming and we knew it" I regarded her as she talked, coaxing more out of her.

"So what did you do?" She smiled, a little lopsidedly.

"We went in anyway. We had to, if we didn't they gained psychological superiority over us, especially in the minds of the local people, so we had to show we wouldn't be scared off by the thought of a firefight or an IED" I shook my head at the idea of walking into something like that, so I told her.

"That's fucking nuts; they'd be waiting for you, it'd be an ambush" She nodded as she replied.

"Only if we didn't shift things up; so we'd try and change our plans on the fly at the last moment to try and deal with it. Instead of going in at ground level we might drop in by helicopter, or we might take a wall down by having an Abrams ram it, then pull back" She shrugged. "We might send a robot in first or fire a barrage of tear gas canisters inside then wait them out, then maybe send the robot in. Go in at nightfall or just after dawn rather than the middle of the night like they were expecting. We knew they were waiting for us, but that didn't mean we couldn't change it up a bit" I pursed my lips in thought; it was still damned dangerous...

"Did it work?" She pulled a face before speaking.

"Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes you just had to kick the door in, trusting to your body armor and your squad mates to keep you safe" Ana looked away for a moment, then looked back. "I was lucky, most of the time; others, not so much"

I just nodded, there wasn't much more to add.

The silence was broken by my phone, the old Warner Brothers 'Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century' theme ringing out, it was Flynn, Major Crime's mad Dodgers fan, calling me back, the squad had got a call out. In a way it was a relief, anything had to be better than an endless round of worrying about Maura and what could happen to her, or seriously considering preemptively shooting Kennedy and Powell and the rest and calling it self defence, so I said goodbye to Ana and headed out.

The murder scene was messy, a late middle-aged couple, Jurgen and Sarah Reinhold found dead in their home by their eldest son Karl, both killed by close-range multiple gunshot wounds to the face. The father was a big shot, the senior vice president with Deutsche Bank out here in California, earning enough so that his wife could spend her life being one of those women you see in the reality shows, when she wasn't attending charity events and fundraisers, she was at the beauticians or the stylist or shopping down in those downtown high-end fashion boutiques Maura liked so much. Looking at a photo on the shelf you could see they'd both been attractive, blonde hair, blue eyes, the wife in particular was very well preserved, unfortunately you couldn't see that in real life now, both had been shot multiple times in the face at close range.

We spent the rest of the morning and half the afternoon sorting out the crime scene; the first thing that jumped out was that the valuable stuff wasn't missing, electronics, jewelry, even cash in a drawer in the ground floor home office was still there, the son walked us through the house, noting that everything seemed intact and untouched. The next thing was that there seemed to be no sign of forced entry, plus the home alarm system was turned off. A check with the security monitoring company suggested it was deactivated around four hours prior to the 911 call, so there was a good chance our killer had turned it off before entering.

I was busy taking the son's statement when Maura and her team turned up, immediately taking charge of the victims and setting to work even as we processed the rest of the crime scene, she'd ridden with her team as I'd asked, I didn't want her travelling alone. We'd exchanged a nod and a smile before I'd gone back to the son's statement. He'd just arrived back from a holiday in Cozumel with his girlfriend and they'd walked in to find the bodies. It turned out he'd been collected by a car service as he had a pile of extra luggage, they were avid scuba divers and took their own gear with them so they'd needed help getting it from the airport back home. It also gave them an ironclad alibi, eliminating them as direct suspects.

As I wrapped up and turned to talk to the Chief I saw Maura had finished up with Sarah Reinhold and had looked up at a waiting Brenda.

"Chief Johnson, as you have no doubt recognised, each victim received three shots from what appears to be a small-caliber handgun to the front of the head, all delivered at close range" Brenda nodded and spoke.

"Could you give a preliminary time of death please Doctor?" I watched as Maura shook her head then spoke a little tentatively, she didn't like speculating.

"Several hours at least, however I should know more once I get them both back to the morgue" Brenda nodded.

"Thank you Doctor, we've not found any shell casings so either our killer was fastidious about collecting up after themselves or they used a revolver" Brenda looked down the bodies then back up at Maura. "Anything else you can find would be a big help" Maura stood gracefully, shucking her gloves and collecting her bag as she did, then nodded.

"Of course, I will commence my autopsy as soon as we can get them to the morgue"

"Well Buzz has all the crime scene imagery so they're all yours" Maura nodded and waved for her team to collect both bodies, even as Natalie waited in the doorway for a chance to talk with the Chief. As Maura's team moved in I wandered over and spoke quietly.

"How you doing babe?" I got a quiet smile in return as she looked up at me and spoke, her voice quiet.

"I am...coping. I will feel rather more secure when the people responsible for our current regrettable circumstances are placed under arrest" I nodded at her politeness and understatement, that was so her.

"Hopefully soon, maybe tonight if we're lucky" She nodded before, realising we were being observed, reaching over and resting her hand on my arm for a moment, a wealth of meaning in such a simple gesture, before taking her leave with a warm smile, stopping to chat with Natalie in the door for a moment.

I turned back to Brenda who was getting a brief from Tao about the alarm, waiting my turn to brief her. It was obvious that whoever had turned the alarm off knew what they were doing, no damage there as Tao explained.

'...unfortunately it's one of those alarms with a default code the manufacturer programs into the system to allow their techs to work on it" At Brenda's look he rattled on. "It's got a nine digit code that turns it on or off. It may have been someone who knew the code the family used, or it might have been someone who used the manufacturers override code, no way to tell as the alarm doesn't record the code used" Brenda frowned.

"That is remarkably unhelpful Lieutenant" She chewed her lip for a second. "Please see if you can ascertain from the son how many people knew the family's code, plus how commonly known the manufacturer's code is" Tao looked up from his notepad and nodded as Brenda turned her attention to me.

I quickly brought her up to speed on the son's statement, getting a frustrated little twist of the lips from her as I confirmed he didn't look like an immediate suspect, if the parents had been dead for hours then the son and girlfriend had still been in the air when his parents were killed. Brenda had immediately started wondering about why Mister Reinhold was home, not at work in the middle of the week, dispatching Sanchez off to look into it before turning to me for the rest of my brief. She asked a few pertinent questions then sent me off to check the son's alibi; it's what we do as cops, before she started briefing Natalie on what she could tell the media as the Major Crimes circus rolled on.

Several calls later it emerged that Mister Reinhold had received a phone call on his cell at work before telling his secretary that he had to head home for the next few hours. We were still looking for whose phone had called him, something we'd pull off Reinhold's phone if and when we found it. It was missing, nowhere to be found, fortunately we found a business card with Jurgen Reinhold's cell number plus a phone bill with Sarah Reinhold's number so Tao chased up the cell providers, getting a list of recent calls to and from both cells. It turned out that he'd received a text from his wife's cell telling him she was unwell and that she wanted him to come home. The text was followed by a call from him back to her cell then the home phone here, both of which went unanswered.

I was talking quietly with Provenza when we were approached by a uniform, letting us know he had someone who wanted onto the property. It turned out to be the younger son Dieter; he'd apparently been at university and just got home. Provenza ended up spending twenty minutes or so talking to him but he seemed to know nothing, he'd apparently been in lectures at UCLA, today was an early finish day as he had no more lectures and he'd headed home. He looked like another dead end but we'd check, just to be sure. Same as we'd confirm Karl Reinhold had been on the plane back from Mexico with his girlfriend like he'd said. It was probably a waste of time but it was what cops did, eliminating all the possible suspects, leaving us free to concentrate on more likely avenues of investigation.

Sanchez had already pointed out that the Reinhold's must have a lawn maintenance company to keep the grounds looking good, a pool company to look after the pool, spa and water features and almost certainly some home help, this was a huge place and I couldn't imagine Sarah Reinhold was the sort of woman to be scrubbing toilets and changing sheets so there was probably a maid service involved.

That led to a further discussion with both sons as they gave us the names of the companies or helped us find the names of the companies in the father's office. That would lead to more hours work but it was all part of the job. Four hours later and we were heading back to the office, having gleaned all we could from the scene. I'd got a call back from Ana who'd contacted the TSA to confirm that the elder Reinhold son and his girlfriend had indeed flown in from Mexico that morning, plus we had social media images on the girlfriend's Facebook account placing them in Mexico for the last week. We'd have to look elsewhere for a suspect, unless he'd paid someone else to do the job. I sighed, I could see a lot of hours with the computer looking into the family's background in my near future.

Finally arriving back at the Parker Centre we split up, the rest of the team headed up to the squad room while Brenda sent me down to the morgue to follow up on our victims, I appreciated her sending me, I was worried about Maura and really wanted to see her.

As I rode the elevator down to the morgue, I reflected that all in all we'd had a busy day with not much to show for it. Two dead people, not too many leads and our Robbery / Homicide problems were still out there. I was grimacing at that though as I approached the morgue, stopping when I heard a raised male voice coming from the other side of the door to Autopsy Room 3.

"Fuck you bitch, not so brave now you don't have everyone watching like back then, I told you to watch your back and I meant it"

I felt my jaw clench as my body tingled in that 'fight or flight' reaction, before I stepped up to the door and threw it open.


	67. Chapter 67

Hi guys,

I'm back. Thank you so much to everyone who left reviews or PMs passing on their best wishes for a speedy recovery. Unfortunately my recovery was not really either but still, I'm back and that's all that counts.

Not writing was painful, my muse turned away from me for a while, which was inordinately frustrating, but I'm happy to say I am back now and hope to resume my usual posting schedule.

**IMPORTANT NOTE!**

I have replaced Chapter 66 with a new chapter, replacing the details about why I wasn't posting with a new chapter of Intersecting Lines. I had to do this as I need every chapter between now and Chapter 100 to tell this story. So go back one chapter and **read Chapter 66**, then come back to this chapter. Go on, we'll wait **:)**

All caught up? Good, with no further ado please find below Chapter 67 of Intersecting Lines Book 2, thank you for your patience, I hope you enjoy what I have for you.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**6****7 ****A Waiting Game**

Maura's viewpoint

Following a text message from Anastasia we had gathered at the aforementioned FBI safe house in Altadena, one that she had appropriated for our use over the next few nights. It was rather utilitarian, everything was unremarkably generic, the furniture styles, the paint colours and even the pictures on the wall were wholly forgettable. I suppose that was the point though, no one knew about this facility, certainly no one in the LAPD, so Anastasia was confident we were safe here in the short term.

Dinner was a rather quiet affair, Thai cuisine bought at a local restaurant, good but not particularly memorable, everyone was somewhat subdued, the reality of all that had happened settling in on us, that even now there were trained killers on their way to Los Angeles to murder us, something that hung over us all like an ominous, foreboding cloud.

After dinner we sat around and talked for over an hour, covering all manner of topics, from the important (what we would be doing tomorrow) to the inconsequential (where we were at with the wedding plans) before there was a mutual agreement to call it an early night. Natalie and Anastasia were the first to head to bed not long after nine; Natalie had stayed very close to Anastasia all night as the reality had sunk in, unlike the rest of us, even I, she had never been in mortal peril like this before and the reality was beginning to take its toll. She had wrapped me in a tight hug before they left, one I returned with equal fervour, understanding her need for reassurance in the face of such turbulent times, I confess I needed it as much as she did.

Sharon and Brenda were not long after them, they too had stayed close all night which was completely understandable under the circumstances; they had only recently got together and to learn that someone wanted to take the other person in your life away... Given they had instigated the investigation that led us to our current situation they were feeling guilty, first Sharon and later Brenda had tried to apologise for the circumstances we found ourselves in but we had all waved it away, they were just doing their job, just as we were, the people responsible for this deplorable situation were Kennedy and Powell and their co-conspirators.

Jane, as was her wont, was not comfortable with awaiting events to unfold, her inclination to take action in response to a threat making her restless; her loudly-voiced opinion was that she felt the need to drag the Robbery / Homicide conspirators into a room at the point of her gun and beat the truth out of them, who was in on it and what they'd done. It sounded tempting but we all knew that was not how things were done, even Jane; the conspirators may have abandoned the mores and norms of civilisation but we would not, could not follow them down that morally bankrupt path.

In addition, as had Sharon calmly pointed out, not only was Jane's suggested course of action illegal, our suspects would sit still, say nothing and wait for their union-appointed lawyers to demand we show comprehensive, conclusive proof of their deeds and then, when we were unable to demonstrate incontrovertable proof for the other conspirators; Di Marco, Humphries, Farrar and Osmond, they would walk free. Worse, as Brenda quietly noted, they would know what we knew and would soon determine that we must have them under surveillance, leading them to be far more circumspect that they had been up to now.

At least at this point we were aware of the threat we were under and able to take the necessary precautions to try and neutralise the danger, if we arrested them and then were forced to release them due to lack of compelling evidence, we may have no idea of the nature of the threats that would be soon directed at us. Unfortunately, no matter how much it tested our resolve and our nerves, we had to play a waiting game, trying to stay one step ahead of the conspirators while amassing enough evidence to ensure that when they were arrested their guilt would be totally unquestionable.

It was hard, trying to remain calm whilst possessing the knowledge of what had been planned for us, however I had to have faith in Jane, in Anastasia and in Brenda and Sharon and their teams to keep us all safe. Normally I am not one to take things on faith, all my life I had been trained to place my trust in science and observation and established facts, not blind faith, however in Jane I had found something that was beyond logic. Her willingness to stand between me and any danger, whilst extremely distressing, particularly when she was injured, was also remarkably comforting, I could rest assured that she would use her considerable talents and experience to ensure the safety of all of us, as would Anastasia, I would simply have to place my trust in them both, something that had become a natural reaction whenever Jane and more recently Anastasia were involved.

By mutual consent Jane and I followed Brenda and Sharon up the hall, turning into our room before divesting each other of our clothes and heading into the en-suite shower. It was much smaller than the one at our home but was still all that we needed, all we really wished for was to be close, I helped her wash and she helped me, mostly we stood there safe in each others arms as the water pounded down on us, at least they had good water pressure here. Finally we got out and dried ourselves off before heading to bed as I tried not to notice Jane's Glock 19 resting close at hand on the bed side table.

The bed was neither as large or as comfortable as the one at home but Jane was in it which made it all that I could ask for, we spent a few seconds getting settled, my head on her shoulder and my body partly draped over hers, her arm around my shoulder in one of our usual positions before we both relaxed. The conversation was desultory, instead we both luxuriated in the comfort that the other's presence brought, we talked quietly in fits and starts for almost an hour, covering a diverse range of safe subjects before we finally fell asleep, only her reassuring presence keeping the worst of the nightmares at bay. Regrettably, after all that had happened to us in the past few years I still had a few, but each time I would wake to find her there, safe and sound, holding me protectively to her even as she slept, allowing me to drop back to sleep.

The following morning was a race out to get ready for work, six women, three showers and only so much available hot water presented a decided challenge, helped somewhat as both Jane and Anastasia decided they would shower at the gym at the Parker Centre, happy to put our needs first yet again; each couple finally headed into work independently, getting some breakfast on the way before heading off to our respective workplaces.

The early part of my morning was taken up with administrative activity, reviewing the overnight log of Doctor Garrett, the on-duty medical examiner who had this week's night duty roster, something which rotated through my five deputy medical examiners, They handled the night's cases with the exception of Major Crimes and Force Investigation call-outs which I responded to personally, no matter the hour. Given the usual high-profile of these cases and my personal stake in these squads handling them, my team understood why I handled them and were generally happy to not have to deal with these cases and the attendant political and media pressure that accompanied them.

Fortunately it had been a relatively quiet night, a fatal stabbing, three gunshot deaths, one of which appeared to have been self-inflicted via unfortunately poor gun safety practices rather than suicidal impulses, the regrettable death of one of the city's indigent population from causes as yet unexplained, what appeared to be a fatal narcotics overdose death, a fall from a ten story building either by misadventure, design or homicidal intent; and four fatal car accidents, one of which occurred while the deceased was fleeing from police pursuit on the Foothill Freeway in the city's northeast. I put that case aside for closer review, Sharon would almost certainly be looking into that case and I wanted to ensure that she received the best my office could provide.

Having reviewed Doctor Garrett's initial notes and assigning those cases which he had not yet commenced to the team's other medical examiners to be completed today, I then turned to reviewing yesterday's autopsy reports, going over them to familiarise myself with the results, flagging things my team may have missed and making notes to raise during my regular meetings with each of my Medical Examiners. They are a good team, while each had their own idiosyncracies in autopsy and writing style, they were effective at their job and I would have no hesitation in recommending them for a new role when the time came for them to move on.

Each of them was technically competent, though all needed more hands-on experience with the more challenging cases which was why I had started delegating more of those cases across my team rather than taking them myself; they needed the chance to demonstrate their capability to look beyond the obvious to see what others would miss. That experience, or seasoning as Jane had put it, though quite why you would wish to immerse a human in herbs and spices quite escaped me, was what seperated the good in our field from the competent, let alone the incompetent and truly inept such as Pike and Popov back in Boston.

Thinking of those unfortunate gentlemen reminded me that I had promised myself that I would look for their replacements, not just for the sakes of our friends in Boston but more importantly for the families who relied on the Medical Examiner's office for closure. Suzie Chang back in Boston had emailed me overnight to draw my attention to a promising medical examiner working in Massachusetts' Cape Cod area named Jordan Cavanagh. I had asked Suzie to be alert to a possible successor in my old role and Doctor Cavenagh seemed to fit the bill. While comparitively young for the role she occupied she had already demonstrated a high success rate and a quick skimming of her peer-reviewed papers showed a grasp of the practice that was admirable, as was her success at dealing with less orthodox cases. I then emailed Susie, thanking her for drawing my attention to Doctor Cavenagh and asking her to keep me appraised of her progress; I had no doubt that she would ask Riley Cooper to make discreet enquiries amongst her fellow police officers regarding Doctor Cavenagh's skills and reputation. Riley would be more than willing to help out, in addition to being Susie's partner, she despised both Pike and Popov for their cavalier, sexist attitudes and general incompetence. I also made a note to check into Doctor Cavanagh's academic background and previous employers for their impressions.

If Doctor Cavenagh did indeed check out I would then make contact with her myself, and if after that discussion I felt that she was suitable I would travel to Massachusetts to meet with her personally. If I still felt confident that she was suitable I would then have no hesitation in contacting the Governor's office, my standing there was such that I felt that any suggestions I might make regarding my permanent successor as Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth would be granted a fair and honest hearing.

That done, I turned to the upcoming case load and began allocating them amongst my team, noting the last of the overnight shootings formed part of an ongoing Robbery / Homicide investigation into a chain of convenience store robberies. Given all that had happened recently I had no hesitation in allocating that case to Doctor Ling, I had no desire to be too closely associated with the team from Robbery / Homicide if I could possibly avoid it, at least until the current situation was satisfactorily resolved. That done I was about to seek out a mid-morning coffee when we received a call out to a Major Crimes case, so as previously agreed with Jane I elected to travel with my team of CSI's in their SUV, trading a slightly cramped ride for the implied safety of an LAPD vehicle.

The team seemed particularly surprised by my decision to ride with them, they were a little reserved than normal as we left the Parker Centre, conversation seemed somewhat stilted by my presence, encouraging me to make a mental note to do this more often, I did not want my team to feel awkward in close proximity to me. I was no longer the same introverted, stand-offish individual I had been when I first arrived in Boston, thanks in no small part to Jane, then later our friends, I was my team's leader, not some distant martinet and wished to be seen and accepted as a part of the team.

The Major Crimes squad had been called to the scene of a double murder of a husband and wife, apparently by GSW. I was pleased to see Jane on the scene, just having her close was conforting, even if we did not have all that much chance to interact. In fact having the entire Major Crimes team nearby helped settle me, knowing we were both safe here. After some 30 minutes on site investigation both bodies were released to my team for transport and, while I briefed Brenda, they were loaded in the somewhat macabrely-nicknamed 'meat wagon'. My briefing complete I said a quiet goodbye to Jane and chatted very briefly with Natalie, who had also responded to the Major Crimes call-out, before joining my team as we made our way back to the morgue.

As my personal assistent Celeste dealt with the paperwork associated with our two victims and several of the team commenced processing the victim's clothes, I changed into scrubs and made my way into Autopsy Room 3 where Jurgen Reinhold's body awaited me. As the soft sounds of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite played in the background I processed his body according to procedures so well ingrained through years of experience as to be automatic. He had indeed been killed by three shots to the face with a small calibre handgun, two entry wounds below the eye line and slightly to the left of the nose and the final, immediately fatal, shot to the left front temporal lobe of the brain, the placement of all three entry wounds suggesting a right-handed shooter firing from close range. This was backed up by the gunshot particulate matter residue found impregnated into the skin across the victim's face and the palms of their hand, suggesting that the victim was quite close to the assailant at time of death and that they had time to raise their hands before all three shots were made.

During my investigation I noted that Mister Reinhold showed some signs of an over-indulgent lifestyle with plaque build up in his arteries and other early signs of cardiac disease, prompting me to add several tests to his blood work. Whilst he had quite obviously not died of a stroke or diabetes or cardiac failure, factors such as those may have played some part in the background to his death, on the other hand they may not but it was incumbent on me to be as accurate and exhaustive as possible to assist the detectives in Major Crimes, often it was the smallest details that mattered.

With the first autopsy complete I closed up Mister Reinhold's body and called for it to be returned to cold storage and his wife's body to be brought in as I cleaned up the residue from the first autopsy. I have never yet cross-contaminated an examination and had no intention of this being my first. That done I then passed my recorded notes to Celeste for transcription; dealt with several administrative matters and then returned to commence the next victim's autopsy.

As Tchaikovsky was replaced by the more ominous sounds of Stravinsky's Night on Bald Mountain, I carried out the autopsy of Sophia Reinhold. Like her husband she too had been shot at close range with a small calibre handgun, probably from no more that two feet away. The difference was that two of the three shots had been almost immediately fatal, both penetrating the victim's cerebral cortex. The other shot was messy, tearing through the mouth and out of the side of the victim's jaw however if the victim had been in a position to receive medical help quickly that particular wound would not have proved to be fatal.

I did note a discrepency in the times of death and recorded a verbal note to bring that to the attention of Chief Johnson and her team, Sophia Reinhold had died at least ninety minutes prior her husband's time of death. With little else to note except the fact that Sophia Reinhold had a significant drinking problem and associated liver damage, plus some deterioration of the nasal passages, suggesting some recreational use of cocaine, I had commenced closing her up and was well on the way to completing that task when I was rudely interrupted by the unwelcome presence of Commander Taylor who had barged in unannounced, as was his usual want.

"When can I expect the results of the Ayala autopsy?" I looked up and nodded, acknowledging his presence, before returning my attention to my patient, speaking as I carefully stitched the 'Y' incision closed.

"Commander Taylor, as I explained to Detective Chen more than an hour ago you should have a full and final report later this afternoon" The Commander walked over to the subject on the table then peered closely in at her before looking up at me with irritation.

"This isn't Hector Ayala, what's happening?" I glanced up from the final stitches I was making as I closed Sofia Reinhold up and spoke.

"Indeed it is not, Mister Ayala's autopsy is scheduled to complete within the next hour" My words failed to mollify him, his voice harsh even as I returned to the body in front of me.

"Why the fuck aren't you working on my case? I bet this is Johnson's case isn't it? She only just caught it and you've dumped my case for hers?" I glanced up at him, then sighed gently as I cut the final threads and tied them off, then stepped back, setting the scissors, needle and leftover thread in their assigned kidney bowl off to one side. Only then did I look back at him.

"Commander, I do not presume to tell you how to run your division, please do me the same courtesy and do not try and tell me how to run my department" I was trying to be polite but I refused to back down, this was my department and I most definitely did not take orders from the likes of him. "One of my team is handling your case. Once they complete their investigation I will review their findings and you will be informed of the results in due course" The Commander shook his head in clear irritation, something that was reflected in his voice when he spoke.

"Who's handling it then, I'll go talk to them, maybe I'll get better, quicker results out of them" I shook my head once, even as I held up my hand.

"No you will not Commander, you will deal with me directly, I will not have you badgering my staff incessantly in an unwarranted and futile attempt to get them to rush their conclusions simply to meet your self-imposed timetable. That is how mistakes are made"

"I have an investigation to run and you're holding it up" He sneered down at me, his voice rising as he spoke. "It may come as a surprise to you in your silent little ice palace down here but people are getting killed out there in the real world and unfortunately, you're needed to help catch their killers, so why don't you get off your ass and do your fucking job, instead of prancing around like you're better than anyone else" I crossed my arms and regarded him as he took another step around the autopsy table.

"Commander, I am of course well aware of the role forensics plays in successful investigations, your case is being handled appropriately and you will be advised of the results in due course. Now if you will excuse me, I have an autopsy to complete, so if you would be so kind as to see yourself out I would appreciate it" I shook my head slightly. "As you so eloquently put it, you have investigations to run and I have a job to do, so perhaps you might let me get on with mine while undertaking yours..." I paused for a second, looking up at him, then continued. "...elsewhere" The Commander unfortunately did not take the hint, far from it actually, his voice was full of irritation and the first hints of anger.

"I don't take well to being told what to do" I shook my head reprovingly.

"I asked you to leave so that I may return to the work I have, you may interpret that in any way you please" He took a step closer.

"I've warned you before you stupid dyke, you cross me and you'll regret it" I scowled, I did not like the man and despite my best efforts it showed, in my posture, my expression and my voice.

"Commander Taylor, please remove yourself from here immediately, your presence is neither wanted nor appreciated" He sneered at me, a most ugly expression, his voice taking on a menacing cast as he spoke.

"Uppity bitch, you might be someone in Boston but here you're just some lez ho with a sense of entitlement, I should teach you some manners, the old fashioned way" I took a step back to establish some distance, my back coming to rest against the bench behind me as my arms uncrossed.

"Please leave Commander, now!" He stepped quickly forward into my personal space, trying to trap me there against the bench, the expression on his face was disturbing, to put it mildly.

"Fuck you, not so brave now you don't have everyone watching like back then, I told you to watch your back and I meant it" Now quite concerned at his actions, I took a step to the side, even as he moved to block me in, I did not believe that he truly intended me personal harm but his actions were menacing, unwarranted and extremely concerning. I was about to speak when I was suddenly distracted as I saw a figure appear in the doorway, a smile breaking out as I realised Jane was there, '_oh thank god_' was my only thought. Commander Taylor however obviously saw my smile and took offence to it.

"Oh, you think this is a laughing matter, you stupid bitch, by the time I'm finished you won't be smiling no more" He was quite obviously unaware that Jane was here, if he had he would likely have been more circumspect. Jane's mouth had firmed to a hard line as she spoke; her voice flat and clipped with anger.

"Why don't you take a step back before something really, really bad happens" Commander Taylor's head whipped round, confirming my suspicions that he had not expected anyone else to be here.

"Who the hell are you?" Jane took her time to look him up and down, slowly, in a deliberately insolent and challenging manner and then spoke.

"Jane Rizzoli" She took a step forward and motioned towards me with her right hand, her left remaining close to her side and her weapon. "You were told to step away from Doctor Isles" His eyes narrowed as he took Jane in.

"I know you, you're the dyke in Johnson's squad" Jane smiled, entirely without mirth as she moved around the room, making certain that the Commander's attention was on her, not me and making sure I was out of the line of fire of her weapon should that become necessary.

"That'd be me, now you can take a step backwards and we can talk about this like civilized people or it's gonna get real ugly real quick" Commander Taylor turned in place to watch Jane as she moved, his voice angry.

"Are you threatening me…_Detective_ Rizzoli" He stressed her rank in an attempt to intimidate her, something I knew Jane was not going to respond at all well to. I was not disappointed as she nodded once.

"As a matter of fact, given you just threatened my fiancé, you bet your fat ass I am" Jane took a step forward even as I moved out and away from the Commander as his attention fixed fully on Jane, his voice full of anger.

"I'll have you up on charges for this" She nodded her head slowly, as if considering his threat, he was correct, he could bring charges against Jane should he so chose, Jane however was unfazed, her voice light.

"You could try I guess but let me make something really simple for you" Jane looked him up and down contemptuously then back into his eyes, the Commander was a large man but too little exercise and too much of the wrong lifestyle had taken its toll, he had gone to seed, compared to Jane his physicality was not an issue. "The last person who threatened Doctor Isles' life; well I took a scalpel and shoved it through his chest, gave him a one-way ticket to hell" Jane smiled coldly even as she took another step forward. "And you know what, I got away with it too" Jane shook her head slowly as she continued. "Given you've just threatened her after previously having done so in front of witnesses, exactly what do you think I have to fear from you?" The Commander snorted, though I could see the little tells in his posture and face that suggested he was not as confident as he may have tried to project.

"Like anyone'd believe some nobody dyke piece of shit like you" Jane smiled, entirely without mirth then took another step forward, her body balanced on the balls of her feet.

"We'll have to find out won't we?" She smirked. "Your call, what's it to be?"

"This isn't over Rizzoli" He threw a glance at me. "And it isn't over with you either" I tilted my head to regard him.

"You were asked to leave Commander, several times. Please do so before Detective Rizzoli here takes any necessary steps to ensure you do" He sneered at me.

"I'm not finished with you" Before I could say anything Jane's voice cut through.

"Oh yeah you are" Glancing across I could see Jane had flicked her jacket back out of the way and her left forearm was resting on the butt of her pistol, it looked casual but was anything but, allowing her faster access to her weapon if required. "You're outta here now, while you can still leave under your own steam" The Commander took in her posture and frowned, he was experienced enough to realise exactly what Jane was doing and the threat was clear. His eyes narrowed as he spoke.

"I'll have your badge for this" Jane shrugged.

"You're welcome to try, but right now you're leaving" Commander Taylor shook his head angrily, anger and a touch of fear bleeding into his voice.

"I'll see you kicked out, disgraced" Realising enough was enough I reinserted myself back into the conversation.

"I would doubt that Commander" He turned to face me sneering in a particularly ugly manner, obviously he feared Jane but not I, perhaps I could change that. "You interrupted me during the autopsy for Sophia Reinhold, which means that the microphones used to record my autopsy notes were recording everything that happened here" I could see his eyes widen as he suddenly realised what that meant; even as I tried not to enjoy his reactions to what I was about to say too much. "Everything you have said in here has been recorded Commander, including your unwarranted threats against me and your statements threatening Detective Rizzoli" I smiled a little. "I am sure Miss Morrell in Human Resources will find them singularly interesting" There was silence for a second, though I saw Jane gently tip her head in my direction, conveying her respect for my gambit. Commander Taylor however was unmoved.

"You wouldn't dare, besides, it'd catch her threatening me and she'd lose her job" Jane shrugged, her voice carrying her obvious lack of remorse.

"I'm happy to take my chances; after all I wasn't the one threatening an unarmed woman in the workplace, right here in the heart of headquarters" Whilst I knew that what I had on that tape would end the Commander's career, at the very least he would be demoted, if not fired, I also knew that Jane's career may end as well, the Commander would spin it as much as he could to make it seem as if Jane was in the wrong. If that was the price to be paid, I could not use the evidence, I could not take that risk; the Commander however did not know that.

"Please leave Commander, while I determine if I will take your behavior up with Human Resources and Chief Pope"

"You won't, not if it'll cost this dyke her job" Jane smiled and shrugged.

"It'd be worth it just to see your face" Jane flicked her right thumb over her shoulder towards the door, her left hand not moving from it's resting place on her Glock. "Now beat it" Commander Taylor flushed at being so contemptuously dismissed, scowling at a completely unfazed Jane before finally taking his leave. Jane watched him go, her eyes cold and dark, before she turned to face me, holding her arms apart as I stepped into her embrace.

"I'm sorry Jane, so sorry. Now he is threatening you as well" Jane 's presence was a calming balm, as was the strong arms around me and her scent of lavender, all combing to help restore the composure I had lost. Jane leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead, before leaning back and speaking softly.

"I don't care about that, he threatened you; no one does that and get away with it" I smiled up at her, seeing the protectiveness that was so much a part of her on full display. I shook my head, hoping to head her off before she did something unwise.

"I truly believe he is more bark than bite, he is used to intimidating others to get his way, I doubt he would actually physically harm me, his kind of bully are usually too cowardly for that" Jane was singularly unimpressed.

"Doesn't matter, he threatened you, he's gonna pay for that" I realised Jane wasn't prepared to let it go so instead I decided to remind her we had more serious issues at hand.

"He is, when all is said and done, a second order priority, we need to focus on our current predicament before starting another battle front" For a moment I though Jane was going to argue, then she pulled an angry face for a moment then sighed sadly.

"I s'pose you're right, it just sucks, him threatening you like that, I don't want him thinking he can get away with that"

"I believe your presence, plus the fact that his behavior was caught on tape, should keep him away from me for some time to come" Jane grimaced at my words before she nodded slowly.

"I guess so, but mark my words Maura, we're gonna deal with Taylor, once this whole mess is done with, he's going to be dealt with, once and for all"

I couldn't argue with that, so I just burrowed into her embrace and let the sense of safety and love I felt in Jane's arms wash away the unpleasant experience, replacing it with the reality that I had Jane right here and that just now, all was well with the world.


	68. Chapter 68

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**68 Arresting the Assassins**

Jane's viewpoint

Sanchez and I were sitting in a car near Sharon's house, we'd assumed that when the Cartel's man, Hernandez, had said they'd be in position tonight he'd been good for it and that their assassins would make their move tonight. It certainly looked like they would, after receiving a short call from Hernandez Kennedy had arranged for most of the Robbery / Homicide squad to 'spontaneously' head out for dinner and drinks at O'Malley's, a favorite cop watering hole where they'd have an ironclad alibi, surrounded by dozens of other cops.

So we'd ended up in stakeout, a combined Major Crimes / FID operation; Sharon's team just as incensed as Brenda's at the threat to their boss, the only one missing was Ana who was out at the Bureau safe house in Altadena, watching over Maura and Nat, something that I was grateful for as it was one less thing to worry about.

We didn't know when they'd turn up or whose place they'd go to first, but they'd find all the other places empty, we'd even arranged for Jo and Bass to spend the next few nights at the local vets just so they'd be safe. The killers were supposed to be coming tonight, but we didn't know when first, they could come here first or last, who knew. So in the meantime we waited.

We'd been sitting in my car out here a few doors up the street from Sharon's for over three hours, Sanchez and I, keeping a quiet conversation going to stay awake, the usual wandering discussion that happens when you're sitting on your ass for ages in stakeout, hitting topics like movies, sport, television shows, music and whatever else passed the time, when he turned to look at me.

"So you and the Doc eh?" I flicked him a glance before looking back at Sharon's house.

"Yeah" He nodded then spoke.

"Lucky, she's kinda special" I smiled to myself thinking '_you have no idea'_ then looked over at him and speaking.

"No Sanchez, she's really special, one of a kind" Looking my way he nodded again.

"You got that right; never met anyone like her" I nodded then spoke.

"You won't either. There's only one Maura" He nodded agreeably again then glanced over at me and spoke, his voice a little hesitant.

"Ask you a question?" I glanced his way and shrugged.

"Depends on the question" He spoke up, a little hesitantly.

"Were you...uh, into women before…" I raised an eyebrow at his attempt at delicacy, letting my tone dip well into the 'sarcastic' register.

"Gay Sanchez, I think that's the word you're looking for" He glanced over at me.

"Uh yeah, were you…?" I shook my head once and spoke.

"Nope, straight" I caught him nodding out of the corner of my eye before he continued on.

"So how was it, was it hard coming out?" I shook my head at the thought as I explained.

"Never even thought about it; being gay I mean, I never thought it'd happen, until it did. I mean Maura and me? She's amazing and I'm a cop. What'd she ever see in me?" He sketched a grin, amusement shading his words.

"Damned if I know" I snorted as I glanced across at him.

"Think you're funny?" On safer ground his grin widened; his voice light.

"I try" I matched his grin, two could play this game.

"You're very trying" He shook his head a little, then spoke.

"Thanks, I think" There was a silence for a bit, before he tried to get us back on track. "So about you and her" I realised something must be bugging him, he normally wasn't that much of the prying type, so I encouraged him.

"Yeah?"

"What made you realize you were gay?" I threw him a raised eyebrow as I asked the question.

"Why, looking for tips?" He didn't say anything for a moment, making my head swivel towards him. "Got something you want to share with the class Sanchez?" I said as he made a noncommittal gesture with his hands, finally speaking.

"One of my nephews came and talked to me, I'm the cool uncle he shoots at the range with" I nodded encouragingly, waiting for him to go on, which he did. "I've always told him he can come to me about anything, I won't tell his parents; drugs, booze, gangs, girls, anything. I'd give him advice and try and help, but it'd be between him and me" I nodded again, I could see him as the cool uncle, sitting down over a beer and chewing things through.

"How olds this nephew of yours anyway?" He glanced away from Sharon's house to me and then spoke quietly.

"Diego's 22 this year" I made a coaxing gesture.

"And...?" He pulled a face then spoke.

"He told me he's...confused" I looked over at him, easily seeing where this was going.

"What, he thinks he's gay?" Sanchez shook his head once, his reply quick.

"He's not sure. I mean he's not a virgin, he knows about girls" At my skeptical look he looked a bit sheepish. "Well as much as any 22 year old kid can" I chuckled and he grinned. "He works out, a lot, practically lives in the gym. Seriously, the kids a rolling mass of muscle, the chica's are all over him, kinda helps he's really good looking too" I couldn't resist a quick barb.

"Unlike his uncle" He grinned, his answer quick and without rancor, as was the bird he sent my way.

"Fuck you Rizzoli" I tilted my head and grinned back, rolling my eyes at him.

"Sorry Sanchez, hate to break it to you but you are SO not my type" He waved my comment away.

"Yeah, yeah, not blonde and beautiful, I get it" I tilted my head and glanced at him.

"Not to mention wrong chromosome" He bobbed his head once.

"Damn, knew something wasn't right" I toyed with the upholstery on the door as I dragged us back on track.

"About Diego?" Sanchez nodded at my pulling us back on topic and resumed speaking.

"Yeah, anyway, he's basically what one of my teenage nieces calls man-candy" He fished his phone out and scrolled through to photos. "Watch your eyes" he murmured as he handed it over. I looked down and my eyes widened; taken in a gym with the kid just wearing a pair of gym shorts, he should be a male model for Calvin Klein underwear, the body was seriously sculpted, his torso all tight definition and washboard abs while the face was nice, square jawed, strong cheekbones with warm brown eyes. I may not be interested in guys anymore but even I could see the physical attraction. Handing it back I smiled.

"You sure he's related to you Sanchez, I mean, I don't see the resemblance" I got a frown as he put the phone away.

"Don't be a wise ass Rizzoli. Anyway, he has no trouble with the ladies, but he came to me to talk a few days back" I let my eyes close for a moment, letting the dazzle fade after looking into the bright screen as I replied.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, we talked over a couple of beers; he told me women weren't doing it for him. None of the ones he was meeting showed the same dedication to making their body perfect like he did, they were all about stuff he didn't find important y'know?" With my eyes closed I nodded.

"Like what?" I could hear the resignation in his voice.

"Facebook, Twitter, social media stuff, that Twilight shit, Taylor Swift, celeb gossip, girly stuff, that sort of thing" I couldn't help the grin as I replied.

"Well that's the thing for lots of young girls Sanchez, he's gotta accept the whole Mars and Venus thing"

"Yeah, I know that and you know that but he's 22 for fucks sake. Look he's seriously into the whole building a perfect body thing, I mean you saw the picture, he's putting the work in" Based on that picture I saw there was no arguing with that, which I was happy to point out.

"Have to say, it's paid off" Sanchez nodded as he pushed on.

"Yeah, the girls appreciate it, but he's not finding them interesting, he needs a woman who's as dedicated to the whole body sculpting, personal improvement thing as he is, but there aren't that many" I nodded, slowly opening my now re-acclimatised eyes to the darkness, I could see well enough for now, even as I turned my mind to Sanchez's statement; the sort of dedication this Diego kid was showing was hard, I've put a lot time in over a lot of years in the gym, always had, but what he had was practically a full time occupation...finally I spoke.

"Well I can't help you there, I don't play matchmaker" He grimaced.

"Ha, funny" He tilted his head and glanced at me. "That's not the issue though" I flicked a glance into the mirror, checking behind us, still nothing, then looked at him and asked.

"What is?" Sanchez shrugged.

"Well, he's put so much time in, building that whole package, he tells me he appreciates the hard work and dedication that goes into it" Understanding where that was coming from I nodded as he continued. "So when he sees someone else who's done the same hard work he appreciates that" I nodded once again, I could see what Diego meant, Ana and I spent a lot of time together training and sparring, I appreciated the commitment we shared and respected her for it so I thought I could see where Sanchez was going with this, so I tried putting it into words.

"So what you're saying is that your nephew is finding the only people he appreciates and admires are the guys at the gym for having the same dedication he has" Sanchez nodded slowly as he replied.

"Yeah, he came to me to tell me that he's finding that he's attracted to the same sort of dedication he has, that the only people he knows who have it are guys" He shrugged a bit helplessly. "Now I gotta work out what the hell do I tell him" I thought about it for a bit, my silence letting Sanchez know I was taking it seriously, it was obviously a big deal to him to talk to me about it, to open up, so I owed him that much for trusting me with it. Finally I spoke, my voice quiet.

"I can kinda see where he's coming from. Look I spend a fair time in the gym, so does Ana, we spar a lot, train hard. I appreciate the hard work Ana's put in, I'm sure she does the same for me. When you share something that takes that sort of commitment and time, you end up appreciating the person more" He nodded slowly, looking at me as I went on. "Look, Ana's an attractive woman, if she was on the market a lot of men and women would be interested" Sanchez nodded once, no sarcasm in his voice as he spoke.

"Not wrong there" I shrugged and continued.

"Same with me I suppose, Maura tells me that all that gym work's paid off even though I'm a taller and thinner than Ana" I expected Sanchez to say something smart at that but he just kept nodding and listening, obviously this was important to him so I glanced his way and pushed on. "Because we appreciate and admire the work we're putting in, it means we see others who could do that but don't and find that person less interesting cause of it" I paused as I worked out how to say this. "Diego's like Ana and I, except we're not interested in the person we're working out with because we both have someone amazing at home. Diego doesn't, so his attentions drawn to the only people he knows with the same commitment he has" Sanchez nodded slowly, his eyes off in the distance before he spoke; his words slow as he thought it through.

"I can see that, he's attracted to the same mindset he's got? That what you're saying?" I pulled a face; he was close enough I guess.

"Kinda. He looks at the sort of body he's spent all that time and effort building, he admires it, it's what he wants. Then he sees other people with the same goals, building the same sort of body he's admiring, he's attracted to building a perfect body, so he's attracted to others who have the same thing he has" I thought about it for a moment. "If Maura were here she'd say something about latent narcissism and the attraction to the same" His eyes widened.

"The latent what?" He smiled a little crookedly. "You're gonna have to turn on the Isles to Sanchez translation device"

"Narcissism" I smiled, remembering a discussion Maura and I'd had a few years back. "It basically means someone obsessed with how they look, vanity taken too far" Sanchez quickly frowned, a trace of annoyance in his voice.

"You think Diego's vain? What's that got to do with him liking guys?" I waved my hand in a negative gesture, as if I was waving away that concept as I tried to explain what I was thinking.

"What it means in this case is that Diego's focused everything into looking sensational, done a pretty good job of it too. He wants to be perfect; to have a perfection others admire and envy, right?" Sanchez nodded slowly, his eyes on me. "So he spends all his time wrapped up in how good he looks and looking as perfect as he can" I shrugged. "Sounds like an excess of vanity to me, you reckon?" Now it was Sanchez who shrugged as he spoke.

"He's put in a lot of time on his body, so it's kinda natural he spends time appreciating it I guess" I nodded, happy that he'd seen what I meant, before I pressed on.

"Exactly, now when it comes to finding a partner, he wants someone as committed to the same desire to be perfect as he has, but you've already told me he can't find women with the same dedication, right" He nodded once.

"Yeah" My eyes scanned up the street and across the front yards of Sharon's neighbors even as I replied.

"So he looks around, girls aren't doing it for him because they don't have the same drive he has; their bodies aren't as good as his, aren't as committed to the whole perfect thing so he looks around, discovering the only people with similar drives are some of the guys he trains with" I paused for a moment, then continued. "Plus Diego spends a lot of time admiring and appreciating the body he's built, it's something to desire, to want, so when he meets other guys with similar bodies he admires and appreciates them" I glanced his way and finished. "You follow me?" He scratched his chin then spoke.

"I think so, he's attracted to the mind set of people with the same dedication" I nodded, then pushed on.

"Partly, he's also attracted to a perfect body, that's what he's put all this time and effort into, so he see's other perfect bodies and he's attracted to that too" I paused, normally I don't talk about sex much, but Sanchez did ask… "Try looking at it from his point of view, ok?"

"I'm trying" I nodded, for a guy brought up on the whole 'Latin machismo' thing this must be a touchy subject; I had to admire Sanchez for trying to do the right thing by Diego, even though it didn't fit the whole macho thing. This Diego kid was luckier than he realised, having Sanchez as his uncle; I gave him a smile as I pushed on.

"Diego has no trouble attracting the girls you said" He nodded at that comment even as I pressed on. "So he gets them into bed and the sex might be good, but the body he's with is soft, compared to his it probably feels lumpy and doughy, to Diego it's not an attractive thing, not what he considers desirable" Sanchez was still, I could see him thinking that over so I left him in peace for a bit. Eventually he looked back at me, a question in his eyes.

"But girls are supposed to be soft, it's what makes them…nice" I nodded.

"Sure, that what you and I think, but Diego's got his head in a different space. His ideal's all hard muscles and sculpted abs, a soft body's probably not attractive to him at all" Sanchez nodded again. "So he finds being with girls unappealing because their bodies aren't what he's come to consider attractive"

"I see that, but guys?" I spread my hands in a 'what can you do' gesture.

"The guys he works out with are probably the only people he's associating with who have bodies he finds attractive, so he looks at their bodies, hard and cut like his and he finds that...attractive" Sanchez voice was a little tentative.

"But they're...guys, to be involved with them…"

"Sanchez, it may not involve that as much as just being the sex" He pulled a face; I'd just gone straight to a place he really didn't want to go. I smiled a little as I kept speaking. "He may just want the feel of a hard body against his, after all he's kinda in love with his ideal of the perfect, rock-hard body, so that's what he wants to feel under him" I shrugged. "Or on top of him" Sanchez frowned; he was obviously trying not to see too much of the images I'd just sent his way. He sat there for almost a minute thinking about it, looking up the street and idly toying with his watchband, not really with me, before coming back from where ever he'd been.

"So what you're saying is he's not interested in being gay, he just wants to experiment?" I shrugged.

"Not experiment so much as experience. He's tried girls and they aren't doing it for him, he's thinking about acting on the attraction he has to a hard, toned body, the sort he has" His head bobbed once in understanding before he looked my way and asked the next question.

"You think it's a phase or something?" I shrugged, I was guessing on this point.

"It might be, he may come to the conclusion that it's not what he wants, or he might try it and decide it's something he likes. In the end it's all down to him" He looked out the windscreen for a moment before he spoke.

"So what the hell do I tell him?" I paused, long enough for Sanchez to look my way; he needed to know I was serious about what came next. When he did I spoke carefully.

"You tell him you'll love him no matter what, that he's still the same person he always was and that won't change, you'll still be his cool uncle no matter what decision he makes" Sanchez nodded once, then asked me a question I wasn't expecting.

"Did you have that problem?" I shook my head, remembering most people's reaction.

"Not really, my family and our close friends knew and loved Maura long before we became an item, they mostly accepted that we were together pretty well. It was some of my coworkers who turned out to be complete asses about it" I frowned. "Plus one of my brothers" Sanchez looked at me as his eyes widened. He regarded me for a moment but when I didn't say any more he moved on.

"So what advice do I give him though?" I shrugged, I really didn't have all the answers, on the other hand I had been asked so…

"Tell him that he needs to give this a lot of thought before he acts on it. That if he does decide to do this he doesn't try and jump into it with one of the guys he's spending time in the gym with…" I paused for a second as a thought came to me and I looked across at him. "…unless they've been encouraging him that way?" Sanchez shook his head once.

"Not that he's said" I nodded once and pushed on.

"Right, cause if his interest isn't welcomed, he might lose some of his friends. They're used to him as one of the guys, then for him to be something they're not used to, that'll be hard, much harder if he comes out and his interest isn't returned" Sanchez nodded, his voice a bit uncertain.

"I understand" I turned my head to look Sanchez straight in the eye as I spoke, my voice low.

"Look, I can see this is really hard for you man. Diego's trusted you with something important, so don't fuck it up because it's not your thing ok?" He was silent for a bit so I pushed on. "Look, maybe you can do some research, find out if there are any gyms in LA for woman who take body building and sculpting as seriously as Diego does, maybe there are and he might find someone there who's got the same dedication and drive Diego's got" I saw Sanchez' eyes light up.

"You know any like that?" I realised just how lucky Diego was, I sure as hell wished I had a cool aunt or uncle I could have gone too about how I felt about Maura, I might have saved myself a pile of heartache and a whole lotta time.

"Nope, sorry, that level of dedications not my thing, I spend time in the gym to be good at my job, not build a perfect body. Besides, I don't find that sort of sculpted hard body all that attractive, my taste runs more to the nice curves you get from running and yoga" He looked over at me and nodded slowly, obviously understanding what, or more correctly who I meant as I continued. "You're a detective Sanchez" I grinned at the sudden memory. "Go out and do your gumshoe thing; y'know, you're a detective, so detect" He pulled a face.

"Thanks Rizzoli"

"No problem, happy to help" He was quiet for a bit then looked over at me.

"Seriously though, what do you think I should tell him?" I thought about it for a few seconds then spoke, hopefully my words would help.

"Look, I'm not the best person to ask, I wasn't into the gay and lesbian scene before Maura and I got together and I've never done the gay dating thing but I suppose that he needs to take it slow and carefully" Sanchez nodded, watching me as I pressed on. "He should dip his toe into it, go out and visit a gay club on a Saturday night, soak up the vibe. He's gonna get hit on, so he needs to be aware of that. He doesn't need to say yes, just enjoy the attention and watch and get a feel for the atmosphere and the people, y'know?" Sanchez frowned.

"What will that achieve?" I shrugged and pressed on, trying to explain my thoughts.

"It kinda makes it real for him I guess. He'll get lots of attention; lots of guys will find him interesting so it'll go from an abstract to a reality. I'm not suggesting he goes home with anyone, not then, just that by being there he'll be confronted with the reality of his choice" Sanchez chewed his lip for a moment, then looked across at me, his uncertainty as easily seen in his eyes as it was heard in his voice.

"Do you think he's making the right choice?" I sighed then spoke.

"Not my call man, he's the one living inside his head, what he does is his call, all you can do is support whatever choice he makes" He pulled a face.

"But to have sex with..." I shrugged, deciding to give him a bit of a broader perspective.

"Hey Julio, it's not so easy the other way round either" He shot me a look as he asked.

"What you mean?" I shifted a bit in the seat to partially face him, but also to get more comfortable, a Crown Vic's seats weren't the most comfortable and my ass ached.

"Being pressured to go straight when you're gay's just as messy as what we've been talking about" He glanced at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?" I nodded.

"Yeah, Maura and I have a friend back East; she's a lawyer, tall, blonde, beautiful and very, very gay, has been since college. Her parents tried to force her into being straight; it's what they wanted; settle down with a guy, get married and start popping out the sons and heirs, the whole nine yards. Let's just say that didn't work out the way they planned, she ended up pretty estranged from them because they wanted what they wanted, whereas Alex just wanted to be happy with someone she loved, some woman she loved" He nodded, then looked over at me before he spoke, his voice questioning.

"Is she, happy I mean, being gay?" I smiled, images of Alex and Liv together, the sheer rightness of what they had with each other, playing in my head.

"You know how happy Maura and I are?" He nodded. "Same with her and her partner, they're as much a matched set as we are, or Ana and Nat, maybe even more so" I smiled again. "We're all lucky, it worked out for us" I paused for a moment, the pushed on. "On the other hand Diego may work out it's not what he wants; especially when he's at a bar or club and it's right there in front of him on offer. When he suddenly realises it's not abstract, it's real, that some guy wants to take him home and fuck him, at that point it's suddenly a real choice" I noticed Sanchez wince at my words and shrugged again. "He's the only one who can make that choice Sanchez, all you can do is support whichever one he makes" It was quiet for a moment, I looked over to see Sanchez chewing his lip so I spoke up. "Hey Sanchez, if you're gonna be the cool uncle, it means stepping up when he needs you, and he sounds like he's gonna need you lots" He glanced over at me, his voice tentative as he realised where this might be leading.

"I guess so" I immediately shook my head; I had to get this through to him.

"No guessing about it Julio; If he does come out he's gonna take a lot of shit from people, including some from family and some from people he thought were his friends. He's gonna need someone to talk to so if you wanna be the cool uncle you're gonna have to man up, for Diego's sake" I saw his jaw tighten at my challenge, before he could say anything though Brenda's voice came over the radio, soft and low.

"Wake up everyone, the alarm company just rang to say the house's sensors are reporting movement out the back of the house, so get ready" I looked at Sanchez and he nodded, our previous discussion tabled for the moment. He reached round and drew his pistol before looking at me.

"Hope the Chief and the Commander are ok in there" I nodded, drawing my own Glock, and spoke.

"At least they've got Gabriel and Kwang and Rosenberg as well" Brenda and Sharon were the bait, sitting watching television, or at least pretending to. The others were hidden inside for support, while the rest of us were scattered around the area, waiting.

"I see them, three guys" It was Flynn, his voice a whisper. "Something's funny..."

"What?" It was Brenda. "Talk to me Lieutenant"

"One of the guys is walking funny, like he can't walk right" Sanchez and I exchanged a look as Brenda's voice came through again.

"Stay on it, everyone get ready to move in on my word" The next sixty seconds passed in silence and increasing tension until Brenda's voice came through, a harsh hiss.

"The alarm company's saying the back door just opened, start moving" In a flash we were out of the car and running, our job was to catch them if they fled the scene, or catch them in a crossfire if they fought it out.

As we rounded the side of the house and approached the back door I saw Flynn and Elliot running in from the other direction while Tao, Provenza and the rest of FID were covering the front. I saw lights come on and heard shouts from inside the house, voices yelling 'Police' and 'Drop the gun'. For a few seconds it was quiet, before a single shot was fired inside, the flash visible through the kitchen window. A few seconds later the back screen door exploded open as a guy came tearing through it, right in front of the four of us, our shouts tumbling over each other.

"Stop!"

"Police!"

"Drop the weapon!"

"LAPD, drop the weapon!" The guy came to a halt, seeing all four pistols pointed at him. Elliot motioned with his weapon, his voice urgent.

"Drop the gun, now" Flynn was right behind him, his voice full of anger and stress.

"Drop it scumbag, or I drop you" He must have realized the jig was up; he raised both hands, the pistol still in his right hand. I stepped forward, gun gripped tightly in both hands, my voice harsh with stress.

"Very, very carefully, put the gun down" For a second he looked like he'd do something stupid, before Sanchez, who'd stepped round behind him, called out something in Spanish. The guy stiffened, head turning to look back over his shoulder at Sanchez, who was staring over the sights of his Glock at him, before nodding quickly. Holding his hands out away from his side, he bent over and placed the gun on the ground before standing back up, the expression on his face something between anger and chagrin at being caught. I took three quick steps towards him, using my foot to kick the pistol away from him, making sure I kept my pistol aimed at him.

Sanchez stepped up behind him and with an anguished cry the would-be assassin dropped first to one knee, then the other. I suddenly realised Sanchez had kicked him in the back of the knees, dropping him. Normally I'm no fan of police brutality, it drags us down to their level and we're supposed to be better than that but given that after killing Brenda and Sharon, these scum were planning to come round to our place and kill Maura and me and Ana and Nat, charitable didn't really cover my feelings.

While Sanchez was searching him, Flynn had his radio out, letting Brenda know we had one guy, asking what was happening. I was worried too after the shot fired inside, hoping everyone was ok. Finally Brenda's voice came though, loud and clear.

"We're ok, no one's hurt, one suspect in custody in here, what about out there?" Flynn looked around as he spoke into the radio.

"We have one here, wasn't there three?" Tao's voice came from where he was stationed round front.

"None seen in front" Brenda's concern carried through the radio.

"Be careful everyone, we still have one missing" There was a sudden shout as Elliot called out.

"Here" I took several steps forward, seeing Elliot standing over a body on the ground, in the light coming from the open door and our torches I could see it was a young black kid, his hands tied together behind him with a gag in his mouth. On closer look I could see his ankles were tied together by a cord, enough so he could walk but not run.

"Got the third Chief, by the back door" Elliot was untying the gag, the kid's eyes wide as he stared at us, panicked words pouring out when the gag was released.

"Don't shoot me, don't shoot me, I wasn't doing nothing, it's them, they grabbed me man, right off the street" Elliot was quick to reassure him

"It's okay kid, we're the police, no one's going to shoot you" The relief on his face would have been comical at any other time; he looked like a ganger so this was probably the first time he'd been happy to see the cops.

"Looks like he was going to be the sacrificial goat" At her voice I looked up to see Brenda standing there in the doorway, Flynn marginally beat me to the question.

"You OK Chief?" Brenda nodded as I realized she still had her Glock in her hand.

"We are, though I can't say the same for the gunman inside. He got a single shot off before he got tackled, the Commander though is very, very unhappy about the bullet hole he put through an original oil painting in her hall" She grimaced. "I thought she was going to put a hole through him when she saw it" I nodded to myself as I moved to cuff the suspect, Sharon's home was nicely furnished, lots of original pieces she'd collected over many years, I could imagine her being really pissed at damage in there. As I slapped the cuffs on Sanchez was already reading him his Miranda rights in Spanish then English.

A few seconds later Kwang and Gabriel emerged with their guy in tow, Rosenberg following, carrying a 45 Browning automatic in his gloved hand, Provenza handed over an evidence bag and in it went, the SIG the guy we'd tackled was carrying ended up in another. We looked around blinking as the back lights came on, illuminating the area. Sharon emerged, her pistol held in one hand, taking in both teams.

"Good work everyone. A nice take down" Brenda nodded in agreement, smiling as she spoke.

"Detectives, can I ask you to take our three suspects here downtown for booking; the charges are attempted murder, breaking and entering and carrying concealed weapons, plus anything else you can think of. I think we can let them stew overnight, they can wait until tomorrow morning before we interview them" There were nods all round. Brenda's eyes roved around the combined Major Crimes and FID teams. "Well done everyone, really well done"

Together with most of the others I nodded. With these two we were a lot closer to nailing Powell and Kennedy and anyone else in Robbery / Homicide who might have been in on it. I was particularly looking forward to hearing their reaction when they found out we had these guys in custody, after the grief they'd put us through, I wanted to see them squirm a bit.

It mightn't be as satisfying as busting them, but right now I'd take my good news wherever I could get it.


	69. Chapter 69

**A/N**A long one to be sure, but it clears the decks for a lot of what's coming up

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**69 Wrapping up Reinhold**

Brenda's viewpoint

The two Cartel assassins were proving to be a right royal pain in the neck. Bad enough that I didn't speak Spanish, apparently rapidly becoming the national language of Southern California, but they'd lawyered up and were refusing to talk to me, even via an interpreter, as I was discovering with the one who claimed to be George Vega, though I'd privately dubbed him Assassin 2; the ID he'd been carrying in his wallet turned out to be a fake, same as the other assassin, so that was proving to be a dead end. I looked over to the interpreter sitting next to me, a slightly overweight woman who did this sort of thing regularly for the department or so I'd been told, and repeated myself, again.

"Please tell them they were caught inside the residence, with weapons" She nodded and did just that, for the fourth time to no reaction so I tried again.

"We know they were coming in to kill Commander Raydor and me" She translated again, to the very bored man across the table and his barely less-bored lawyer, both of whom said nothing.

"They were both caught in Commander Raydor's home, so that makes them look like assassins, unless they think they have a good reason to be there?" After translation the cartel man finally showed some emotion, amusement. He spoke for a few seconds before the translator turned to me, embarrassment on her face.

"I'm sorry Chief, his response was crude and not helpful" I looked at her and she looked down at the table, embarrassment easily discerned in her voice. "He said he was there to… well he's suggesting he was Commander Raydor's…boyfriend" I looked at her with my frustration almost certainly evident on my face.

"I'm absolutely sure that wasn't exactly what he said, but I can imagine the original text" She looked up and smiled sympathetically.

"Sorry Chief, he's basically not talking, he either thinks he'll get off because you don't have enough evidence, or that a stint in a California prison on breaking and entering and weapons charges isn't going to be all that difficult" I nodded and looked across at their bored lawyer, my voice no doubt conveying just how annoyed I was.

"Tell your client that I will convict him for criminal conspiracy to commit murder, plus kidnapping that kid, whether he talks to me or not" Their lawyer, Colin Holcroft, an unpleasant individual in a nice suit, way too nice for the person wearing it, had appeared in response to their phone call. At my words he just shrugged, boredom in his voice.

"It's all circumstantial, if that's all you've got then a break and enter charge and weapons possession is all you'll get them on, with a plea bargain they'll be out in a few years, maybe less" I felt my temper rise.

"Keep telling yourself that Mr Holcroft, right up until I put your clients on death row, Until then, I have better things to do than listen to their denials" I turned to look at David, who was standing leaning against the wall. "Sergeant Gabriel, would you please have our suspects conveyed down to holding, we'll keep them close, in case I want to talk to them again" As David opened the door and called in the uniformed officers standing outside the Cartel man's lawyer stood and smiled.

"Always a pleasure Chief Johnson, you have my number of course, for that plea bargain" He smiled as the suspect was led out before following him down the corridor, leaving me feeling like something slimy had just crawled across my skin. Shaking my head in disgust I gathered my things, thanked the interpreter for her work, futile though it had been and headed back to my desk. I'd hoped we'd get somewhere with the assassins in custody which was why I'd interviewed them both first thing this morning but they were both stonewalling as hard as they could. Sharon and I had decided that we were going to keep the fact that we knew they were from Sinaloa to ourselves at the moment to avoid tipping our hand but it was turning out that we were getting nowhere, leaving me feeling pretty frustrated.

It was barely nine when I walked into the squad room, just in time to catch Mike Tao about to head out on a coffee run so I happily added my order to the list, together with a couple of dollars to the collection. That done I wandered into my office and sat down, opening my top drawer and grabbing for the first thing that came to hand, it turned out to be a Hershey Bar, before settling in for some quality chocolate and brooding time.

Fifteen minutes later I'd got nowhere productive so it was with a sense of relief that I watched Mike Tao arrive, coffee would be a welcome distraction right now. I wandered out, accepting the proffered coffee with a smile before stepping back to listen in as my squad chatted, they often came out with the most amusing things but not today, they were focussed on our cases. We'd rehashed the whole cartel assassin's thing to death first thing this morning so they were back on the Reinhold case, with Flynn bringing people up to speed on what he'd learned.

"The older son, Karl, turns out he's a successful funds manager with a boutique venture capital firm called Seraphim Investments" He shrugged then continued. "The company acts as an angel investor hence the name, finding companies with impressive new ideas and bankrolling them in return for equity, the company specialises in technology start-ups" He consulted his ever-present notebook. "The company earned well over seventy million last year according to the SEC, so they're not short of cash" Provenza nodded and looked over at Flynn, his face pensive, like his words.

"So the son's loaded?" Flynn nodded slowly as he answered.

"He's an employee, not a partner, but he's on a high six-figure salary" Sanchez whistled softly then spoke.

"I'm in the wrong job" There were grins all round at that before Buzz spoke up from where he was standing in the doorway to the media room.

"We're all in the wrong job" The grins changed to chuckles, eventually dying down as Andy started speaking again.

"So the kid earns a good living, seems to have little motive to kill his parents and he was on a plane on his way back from Mexico when the parents got whacked" Gabriel looked up from his coffee and asked a good question.

"Does he live with the parents; I mean why go there after being on holiday?" Flynn shook his head and answered.

"Turns out they have an expensive apartment downtown, nice but pretty small. They stored the scuba gear at the parents' house, apparently the whole family was into diving and they had a room off the garage that was set up with all the family's gear, they were all mad keen divers. The family usually went on a big diving holiday once a year and individual holiday's regular like" He shook his head and continued. "Must be nice to be that rich"

I smiled at the thought, a holiday somewhere would be nice; in fact a holiday pretty much anywhere that wasn't in Georgia with my parents would be nice. I'd dived years ago at a resort on my first honeymoon and liked it so I was pretty sure I'd love doing it with Sharon. Sanchez meanwhile had asked about the younger Reinhold son, getting an answer from Gabriel.

"The younger son, Dieter, lives on campus at UCLA where he shares a dorm with three other male students. They all claim that they saw Dieter Reinhold at various times that morning, none of them saw him at the time of the parent's deaths though. He was supposedly in a lecture but no one remembers him" David looked up and scanned the room before continuing. "The subject's an elective on communications and social media that lot of students take for credit so it's pretty well attended though they don't take attendance, the lecturer said he might have been there but if so she doesn't recall him there" Andy Flynn looked up at David and spoke.

"What's your take on the suspect's dormies?" David shrugged.

"Three guys, all around the same age as the suspect, they all seemed a bit nervous around us but that could be for any number of reasons, they're college kids after all" Provenza snorted his derision as he jumped in.

"I swear college kids get younger every year. This lot looked all too young for UCLA, they were all pimply-faced kids, they might be jocks but sure looked they were candidates for one of those acne ads on TV" I noticed as Jane suddenly stiffened then turned to look at him, asking a quick question.

"What do you mean?" Provenza frowned as he looked over at her and answered.

"They were covered in pimples, they looked like they'd just binged on the Chief's top drawer" He must have forgotten I was standing there listening, before he suddenly remembered, looking around quickly and just as quickly wincing when he saw me there, drawing laughs from most people watching. I was about to tease him when Andy noticed Jane hadn't laughed, instead she was scowling in concentration, prompting Andy to ask.

"You got something Rizzoli?" She tipped her head to one side then looked up at him.

"Maybe" She looked over at Gabriel then Provenza. "These kids, they look like they're jocks, work out lots maybe?" They exchanged a glance before Gabriel rubbed his jaw and nodded.

"Maybe, lots of sporting pennants and stuff there and they did all looked pretty buff" Provenza nodded.

"They had a bench press over against the wall, looked kinda well used" I frowned, there was something nagging at me even as Jane pushed on.

"Any sports in particular?" They exchanged another glance before Gabriel frowned, his voice slow.

"They had a pile of those sticks with little nets, the one's you use in that ball game…"

"Lacrosse" It was Mike Tao. He turned away and started typing, seconds later looking back at us. "UCLA has a lacrosse team" He turned back to his keyboard and kept typing, pausing and typing again before sitting back with a self-satisfied smile. "The team's roster includes one Dieter Reinhold"

"Whatcha getting at Jane?" It was Sanchez asking. She smiled coldly; I knew that look, it was Jane when she thought she had something good.

"Full contact sport, well-built but really bad acne, I wouldn't be surprised if Reinhold and his pals are using steroids" Flynn was the first to speak.

"Why?" She shrugged and explained her reasoning.

"Lots of athletes go hard on the steroids for muscle mass and strength" Jane looked around, taking us all in. "I've spent enough time in gyms, in there you see men and women with exaggerated frames, too much muscle and definition, small waists, big changes in body shape really quickly, all pretty much indicative of steroid use" Provenza shrugged at her as I thought it through.

"So, where are you going with this?" She looked over at him.

"There are other side effects, particularly on those hitting steroids up hard. Early onset of male-pattern baldness, development of female characteristics in men like small breasts, in women it's the other way, more male characteristics like facial hair and flattening of the breasts" Jane speared Provenza with a look and smiled. "One common sign is really bad acne, not just on the face but all over the body" Flynn looked over at her, confusion evident in his voice.

"I'm still not getting it, what's all this got to do with anything?" Jane was about to speak when she was beaten to it by a surprising source; Buzz, who spoke up from where he was standing in the media room's doorway nursing his coffee, surprising everyone, he was usually the quietest one in the team, though I'd learned he saw almost everything, plus he was smart.

"One significant side effect of overuse of steroids is aggressive behaviour, really aggressive, in fact it so bad it's sometimes called 'roid rage" He blushed a little at everyone's sudden attention even as he continued. "I see it a bit in the gym I go to, some of the guys there aren't satisfied with being fit and healthy, they want to look really pumped, I try to avoid them because they tend to be really angry and hostile for no reason" I nodded to myself, seeing several others doing the same, even as Mike Tao spoke.

"How much of these steroids do they have to take before they start getting aggressive? Both Buzz and Jane shrugged in reply before Jane answered.

"I dunno, never ever looked at the stuff, we need to do some research" I stepped forward and took control of the conversation.

"Well then everyone, I think it's time we have a closer look at Dieter and his buddies" I looked around and smiled. "Let's move please people" They moved.

Barely an hour later and things were starting to come together, David Gabriel was first, looking up from his computer and waving me over.

"Hey Chief, we got a hit on his finances" I smiled back at him.

"Oh indeed, well don't keep it to yourself Detective, please tell me more" David smiled and looked back at his computer, indicating a bank account spread sheet a quick warrant request had gained us access to.

"Yeah, he was getting a couple of thousand a month from his parents, an allowance like" I nodded and indicated he should go on, which he did. "Three months ago it was cut in half" I toyed with a loose strand of hair for a moment as I thought for a moment before pushing it behind my ear and asking the question.

"That is interesting, I wonder why?"

"I might have an idea Chief" It was Mike Tao, leaning back away from his desk to join the conversation. He flipped through a printout with a prominent UCLA logo then looked up, waving the papers. "Five months ago the kid's academic scores started dropping; he was a B+ average grade student, now he was getting C and C- scores" I nodded slowly, thinking out loud.

"The parents cut his allowance to try and get him to concentrate on his grades, not realising what's actually behind everything" I pulled a face at the concept as I continued. "They think maybe he's slacking off, maybe partying hard, so they tighten the purse strings to pull him into line, not realising that he was actually recovering from injury with drugs on board his system, affecting his grades" Jane looked over from her desk and commented.

"Who wants to bet that was around the time he started hitting the steroids hard" Mike nodded, grabbing another print out and finding the data he wanted and looked up to answer.

"UCLA records say that he'd had an injury at Lacrosse a couple of months before hand; it was bad enough that it looked like he'd end up being cut from the team if he didn't recover soon enough" Jane nodded as if she'd just had a suspicion confirmed and looked round at us, confirming it.

"Lots of people take steroids in the hope of a faster recovery time, maybe that's what got him started" Gabriel chimed back in.

"He starts taking them to speed his recovery, then he starts taking them to be even bigger and stronger, eventually he's taking lots of the stuff and the personality problems start" Mike Tao looked thoughtful at that, nodding once before asking a question.

"Wonder where he's getting them?" I looked round the three of them and threw out some speculation.

"Could be online I guess" There were nods all round so I turned to Mike and spoke. "Lieutenant Tao, can you please go back in and check Dieter Reinhold's financials and credit card statements to see if he is in fact making online purchases"

"Gotcha Chief" Jane looked over at me, speaking slowly as she thought it through.

"He might be getting some of the stuff online but I'll bet he got started by someone at the gym or on the team" I nodded; it was a good supposition, before sending her on her way.

"Detective Rizzoli, would you and Detective Sanchez be good enough to hit UCLA campus security and the gym there, see what you can find out about these steroids and what not" With a nod she grabbed Sanchez and they left as I turned my attention to other matters, seeing Flynn and Gabriel standing there talking.

"Lieutenant Flynn, Sergeant Gabriel, UCLAs a big place and we need to get more people on the ground, if you'd be so kind I'd like you to head down to UCLA as well, talk to the suspect's lecturers, student admin, that sort of thing, see what they have on Mister Reinhold," They both nodded and followed Jane and Sanchez out the door as I turned to see Lieutenant Provenza looking over Mike Tao's shoulder, they looked busy so I let them be as I headed back to my office to await developments and think over the case once more.

Less than an hour later Mike Tao was waking me through our suspect's online transaction history, explaining what he'd found.

"Got online purchases, but not steroids, instead he was buying something called Kigtropin, it's a synthetically produced human growth hormone that's made in China and available online" I frowned

"Whatever in the world would he want with that Lieutenant?"

"I did some research when the name appeared" I nodded in appreciation at his thoroughness as he pushed on. "Apparently it's supposed to promote faster healing from injuries, or so the people selling it claim. I figure, given the date he started ordering it, he started out on that to heal faster, then discovered that he was building muscle mass and learnt that steroids were even better. Seems he's continued to take the Kigtropin and if Rizzoli's right, added the steroids as well"

"Are there side effects of this Kig-tro-pin stuff?" Mike shrugged eloquently, his voice full of disdain.

"Yeah, all long term negative health effects; hypertension, diabetes, joint pain, enlarged organs like the heart, basically bits of your body growing more than they should because you're pumping this stuff into you. Some users even find parts of their body grow disproportionally large" Mike shook his head as he continued. "Taking it seems crazy but according to a contact in the DEA I talked to, this stuff and the steroids are flooding into the country from China, most of it either bought online of through a web of distributors who buy from dealers and sell it on in the gyms to users" I patted him on the shoulder.

"Good work Lieutenant, please keep digging, see if you can turn up anything else" He nodded and I looked over at Lieutenant Provenza who was sitting nearby watching and listening.

"Any word on ballistics yet Lieutenant?" He looked up and nodded.

"It's a .22 calibre, most likely a short barrelled one going on the rifling marks" I frowned.

"And no matches obviously" Of course not, he would have said if there was. "Did the family own any weapons?" He shook his head.

"Nope, according to the older son they mostly grew up in Germany, they have really strict handgun rules back there, so they didn't really ever use them. When they moved out here none of them ever expressed an interest in guns" I pursed my lips, thinking, there was a good chance the weapon was a street special, no history and previously unused.

"Could you please talk to the armorer, he might have some idea of what sort of weapon we're looking at, which would narrow down things just a little" It was a long shot but Lieutenant O'Farrell was a walking encyclopaedia on all things firearms, he'd fired almost every type of handgun ever made or brought into the States, if anyone could help it would be him. A small smile lit up Provenza's face; he and Barry were old drinking buddies; with a nod he stood.

I'll head down there now" As he did my cell rang; it was Jane; so I nodded a farewell to Provenza and made my way back to my office as I took the call.

"Hi Chief, we checked in with security here and they confirm that they do have issues with steroid use amongst athletes, centered on the gyms down here, of which there's apparently quite a few on campus. It's not as bad as it could be, but it's getting worse and has the people here worried" She paused then continued, her voice taking on a sarcastic edge. "I don't think it's because of the health risks or the illegality, probably more because they're afraid of one of their star athletes being busted on a doping check and the reputational damage to UCLAs good name" I nodded as I sat down, considering her words, she was probably right.

"Good work Jane, can you and Detective Sanchez please do some discreet investigations with the lacrosse coach, get a feel for what was going on with our suspect. After all, if you're right this all started with the suspect's injury playing lacrosse"

"Gotcha Chief, get back to you when I have something" I ended the call and nodded to myself, things were speeding up, I looked out of my office at the almost empty Murder Room, most of the squad were out chasing leads, leaving me sitting here trying to piece it all together. The next call was from Provenza.

"Chief, the people down here at the armory…" By which he meant Barry O'Farrell. "…think that the guns probably a Smithy and Wesson, based on the rifling. They think it might be one of the old I-frame lines of small revolvers, maybe a model 35" I frowned, I wasn't familiar with either weapon, for my entire career I'd carried automatics, a revolver seemed so 'wild-west', a six-shooter for heaven's sake. Provenza meanwhile had carried on. "If it is it's an old gun Chief, the model 35 went out of production in 1973" In the privacy of my office I pulled at my bottom lip as I thought, a childhood habit I'd worked hard to break as I grew older, I didn't think it looked all that becoming for a grown woman. Finally I pulled myself together again and replied.

"Good work Lieutenant, keep at it, perhaps Lieutenant O'Farrell might have some further ideas about where it might have been obtained. I take it a weapon that old would not be found commonly available on the street?"

"No way Chief, a gun that old should either be in museums or collections mostly" I nodded to myself as I repeated that last word.

"Mostly…" I came back to myself. "Well done Lieutenant, keep at it" I rang off and started trying to fit this latest fact into the theories I had running round inside my head. Less than an half an hour later and there was another call, this one was Andy Flynn.

"Chief, just talked to student administration, they put me in touch with a couple of the Reinhold kids' lecturers and the counsellor who dealt with the kid. Seems his average's been slipping for a few months, beginning when he started missing lectures, then issues with his behaviour in those lectures he turned up to" Before I could ask he continued on. "Disruptive, argumentative and aggressive, one lecturer kicked him out of his classes because he was trying to pick a fight with a fellow student; apparently Reinhold said he was sitting in his seat, in the end he pushed the kid out of the seat and abused him in front of everyone"

"Atypical behaviour I understand Lieutenant?"

"Yeah, only like that in the last few months and, according to the counsellor, it's been getting worse. Before that he was popular, the kid was a jock with money, drove a nice car, flashed the cash, sports jock, he was well known on the campus, apparently had a string of girls behind him" I nodded, I knew the type well from my days at Georgetown University studying languages., it also meant he had something to lose.

"All things he would have lost if he hadn't regained his health and his money"

"Sounds about right Chief" I sat back and nibbled the inside of my cheek for a moment, thinking it through as Andy patiently waited. Finally I decided what to do next.

"Lieutenant Flynn, I want you to head down to Mister Reinhold's dorm and wait while Lieutenant Provenza gets a warrant to search the dorm, his gym locker and his car. I'll call the good Lieutenant now"

"Gotcha Chief, we'll head that way and wait"

"Thank you Lieutenant, you do that" Two minutes later and Provenza was on his way to the DA's office to work with ADA Andrea Hobbs on getting us that warrant, leaving me to think. Abruptly I sat up and looked round for Lieutenant Tao, spotting him walking out with a cup in his hand, obviously heading for the break room before I called him back to my office.

"What's up Chief?"

"As I understand it both of the parent's cell phones are missing, correct" He nodded agreeably and answered.

"Yep Chief, they both last pinged the nearest cell phone to their home before they were turned off" I nodded; I'd thought as much, it meant we couldn't retrieve any data from them, plus any physical evidence like fingerprints and the like. Looking up at Mike I smiled, he was the right man for this job.

"I want you to backtrack the cell phone locations of Deter Reinhold's cell Lieutenant, that might help us" Mike's face lit up and he nodded.

"On it Chief" He was out the door and heading for his computer before I could reply, as I noticed he'd left his empty cup behind. Given what he was doing I picked up his cup and headed to the break room, the least I could do was make him that coffee that I'd so rudely interrupted. Returning a couple of minutes later I set it down on his desk to one side, getting a quick 'thanks' as he finished inputting data then looked up as I started to back away, heading for my office.

"Wait up Chief, I have the GPS records of Dieter Reinhold's cell phone" I turned and walked his way, to find him staring at a mass of numbers. I tipped my head to look at him and spoke.

"That was quick Lieutenant but while I do speak a few languages, I don't actually speak GPS" He blushed slightly and nodded quickly.

"Oh sorry Chief" He got busy with the keyboard, speaking as he did. "This is the raw GPS data I got from the cell phone service provider, but using another mapping program I can I port the coordinates and get them plotted out on a map" I stood there and watched for almost two minutes as he transposed each set of coordinates into the mapping program. "These are in time order so we can see where he was going" He finally laid out the last set of coordinates and hit enter as the screen was replaced with a map of LA and a set of green dots started appearing. They were initially clustered atop one another at what looked like UCLA's campus in Westwood, then started moving, heading south west on Wilshire then San Vincente Boulevard then left through Pacific Palisades and onto Sunset Boulevard, then along Palisades Drive up into the Palisades Country Estates, before turning off and stopping several blocks away from the Reinhold house. The dots continued moving, but closer together, indicating slower movement as they made their way towards the Reinhold home. I raised an eyebrow and spoke.

"Walking you think?" Mike nodded.

"Sure looks like it, way slower than it was on the road so you're probably right" As we watched the dots entered the location of the family home and stayed there for a good long while, must have been a couple of hours, to the point Mike sped up the timing while we waited, before it started moving off again as I reached out, pointing at the screen.

"Pause it" Mike did as I leaned in. "Can we get a time Lieutenant" He nodded once, blowing up the screen image so we could see a small set of numbers next to the dots.

"Time fits Chief, right inside the time of death windows for both victims" I nodded slowly, seeing a nice tight box starting to form around young Dieter Reinhold.

"Excellent, please continue Lieutenant" He did and the progression recommenced, as we watched the dots made their way back to the spot where they'd originally slowed down and suddenly sped up as Mike commentated.

'Back in his car looks like, he's heading back I guess" He mused. As we continued watching he drove into a deserted area on Palisades Drive and pulled over, the dots moving slowly away from the road for a few minutes, then lingered there for several moments more. Mike looked up at me, his voice wondering. "Pretty isolated right there, think maybe he's dumping the weapon?" I hummed in agreement and watched as the dot started moving again, back to the car then making its way back to UCLA. I nodded once as I tapped the screen, indicating the point where he had stopped.

"Lieutenant Tao, please requisition any number of officers you need to help you search that area, I'd bet my pension he stopped there to dispose of the evidence" Mike was already noting down the coordinates.

"On it Chief" Two minutes later I was alone as I waited; for the next hour I sat and brooded, interrupted by a visit from Sharon where we discussed Commander Taylor's abhorrent behaviour to Maura yesterday and what we could do about it and then a trip up to Natalie's office while I fielded calls from my team. Provenza calling to say he had the warrant and was on his way to join Flynn and Gabriel at the dorm so they could commence a search.

Jane rang to tell me that the coach had reluctantly agreed that Reinhold had made a suspiciously rapid recovery after his injury, he'd suspected steroids or something similar but as Reinhold was a valued member of the team he didn't ask too many questions. It was about what we had suspected. Thinking it over I told Jane that we had a warrant and asked them to get the coach to open Reinhold's locker, getting her quick acknowledgement before she rang off.

I have to say this running an investigation at almost arms length like this felt very strange to me, it surely wasn't how I liked to see my cases run, but it'd just worked out this way this time. I much preferred to be the one talking to witnesses and suspects, measuring the truth or otherwise in what they were saying, reading their body language, this was very frustrating, so much so that I dived back into my draw for one of my dwindling stock of Ding Dongs, that delicious sweet goodness helping to ease my frustration, before I took myself up to see Natalie to discuss the case and what she could tell the media.

Sanchez rang back shortly after I'd sat down with Natalie to report they'd found a large stash of Kigtropin and two steroids, one injectable, called Trenbolone and an oral steroid, Dianabol. Apparently there was a large quantity of all three drugs, so much so that Jane suspected he may be supplying other athletes at UCLA to supplement his reduced income from his parents. I thought it through and nodded to myself, then spoke.

"Detective Sanchez, after you secure that locker's worth of evidence, would you be good enough to talk to Campus administration and find out which lecture our suspect is in and you and Detective Rizzoli head over that way. Don't get too close mind, but make sure he doesn't get away" Sanchez asked the question to make sure he had it right.

"Watch but don't arrest?" I shook my head, seeing Natalie raise an eyebrow at me from across her desk.

"No, not yet Detective, I'm still waiting on Lieutenant Tao, who's off searching for evidence up in the Palisades"

"Okay Chief, keep him under surveillance until we hear otherwise." I smiled happily, my team have become so good to work with over the years, they do what I ask even if they don't quite understand it, trusting my judgment, bless them all.

"Thank you; thank you so much." I ended the call and looked up at Natalie who smiled and spoke.

"Getting closer to the killer it seems?" I nodded.

"I hope so Natalie, all the evidence is pointing that way, but I need Mike Tao to find something I can use for leverage" She nodded and we wrapped up before I took my leave, heading back to my floor where I fretted and worried, before I got several calls in succession, the first was from Lieutenant Flynn.

"Chief, we turned the place upside down, found some empty bottles of medicines with long names, maybe Tao can identify them" I shook my head and spoke as I consulted my notes.

"Would they be called Trenbolone, Dianabol and Kigtropin?" I could hear the surprise in Andy's voice.

"Dead right Chief, how'd you know?"

"Detective's Sanchez and Rizzoli found them in the suspect's locker at the gym" Andy digested that for half a second before continuing.

"We also found something else Chief, a half empty box of .22 calibre bullets" I felt my eyes narrow.

"Belonging to Dieter Reinhold?"

"No Chief, that's the thing, according to the dorm mate we have here now, they belong to another of the kids who lives here, a Steven Kelsey, he apparently possesses a .22 though no one here knows, or is admitting to know where he got it from" I leaned forward, my voice carrying my urgency as I spoke.

"Get back to campus admin Lieutenant, find out where this Kelsey boy is, find him and grab him, I'm going to want to talk to him just as soon as you can get him in here"

"We're on it Chief" Jane was next caller, she and Sanchez had found Reinhold, he was in a lecture as they covered both exits. I thanked them, told them to keep watch, finishing the call and then waited, wondering what the hell was taking Mike Tao so long until finally, he rang.

"Got it Chief, we found two broken phones, a Samsung and an iPhone, plus a .22 calibre pistol with six empty casings still in it" There was a pause. "They were dumped in a storm water culvert"

"Good work Lieutenant; can you retrieve anything useful from the phones?" There was a short pause before he continued.

"Looks like the sims are still in them so that'll help identify the owners" I nodded to myself and smiled in satisfaction.

Very good work, now high tail it back here Lieutenant and get that gun dusted for prints and then checked for ballistics just as soon as you can"

"On my way Chief" I sat back and allowed myself a quiet smile before picking up the phone and calling Jane, who answered on the first ring.

"Hey Chief" I didn't beat about the bush.

"Detective, do you still have Dieter Reinhold under surveillance?"

"Yep Chief, also Flynn and Gabriel have turned up, the other suspect you wanted is in the same lecture, they didn't go in as we didn't want to spook Reinhold" I nodded, happy at my team showing their initiative, though honestly I expected nothing less from them.

"Change of plans Detective, I want you to move in and arrest Dieter Reinhold, while Lieutenant Flynn arrests Steven Kelsey, make sure Reinhold sees Kelsey being arrested, but don't let them speak to each other, keep them separated until I can talk to them individually" I could hear Jane relaying my instructions then, when she came back to me I could hear the change in her voice, probably already moving in on Reinhold.

"We're heading in now Chief, call you when we have them both in custody" With nothing else to do, I sat back and celebrated with a Ding Dong, I was so glad when they came back on sale, they'd always been my favourite sweet-toothed indulgence. The period they went off sale was in my opinion, a very, very dark time, I've never admitted to a soul that I celebrated their return to sale with an obscenely epic binge, but I've been a very good customer ever since.

From empty to full, the Murder Room got busy quickly once people made their way back in. Turns out the pistol and busted phones had been dumped in a storm water drain where a police dog trained to sniff out gunpowder had found them, if we'd had any rain it would have swept it all out to sea, fortunately the drought had meant no rain to wash away our evidence.

Our two suspects were brought in, with Dieter Reinhold sporting a couple of scrapes, apparently he'd tried to charge past the detectives when they'd moved in to arrest him and rather unwisely taking a swing at Jane, she'd stopped him but in doing so he'd been dumped into a batch of seats and come away sore and sorry, now though he was just angry and sullen. Kelsey on the other hand just looked scared and bewildered, happy to tell anyone who'd listen that he had no idea what the hell was going on.

The ballistics from the revolver were a match for the bullets retrieved from both bodies, the casings still in the revolver also matched the batch of shells recovered from the dorm room, tying the gun in even before we recovered Dieter Reinhold's fingerprints from it; the fact that the data from the two sim cards confirmed that they were his parent's phones was just another nail in Dieter Reinhold's coffin.

It turned out that Kelsey was from Texas and the family down there were all concealed carry fans, when their son had announced that he was going to be studying at UCLA the family had been horrified that their son was going to be all alone in Sin City and demanded he take one of the family's guns with him, for protection apparently. Kelsey had picked the smallest one they owned, the old Model 35, and it had sat unloaded in a bottom drawer with the box of ammunition ever since he'd arrived. He'd discussed it with his dorm mates, but he'd never used it, in fact he didn't want the gun in the first place, he'd only taken it to keep his family happy.

Now though it had been used to kill two people, something that Kurt Reinhold had found incomprehensible when he'd turned up later with the family lawyer in response to a call from his brother. Talking to him it turned out that their parents had made no secret about the fact that in case of anything happening to them, their will ensured that their entire estate would be shared evenly between both Reinhold sons. It appeared that in Dieter's increasingly drug-addled mind that in one go he could get rid of his increasingly annoying parents and get his hands on well over three million dollars, which was what Kurt estimated was what half of his parent's estate was worth.

I was awaiting blood tests to see how bad the drugs in his system were but given the evidence we'd amassed, it was pretty certain that Dieter Reinhold was going to jail for a very long time.

"That's…pretty sad really Brenda" I sat back and sighed as I looked over at Andrea Hobbs, who'd come over to get my take on the case as I finished up with my recounting, she'd almost certainly be the one prosecuting it.

"Yeah, apparently he'd become more and more aggressive over the last few months, to the point that violence had become his go-to strategy for everything, no matter how trivial" I paused as a thought hit me. "You don't think he might get off on a lesser charge because of the impact of these steroids and stuff he was taking do you?" She looked off into space for a moment before coming back to me, shaking her head.

"No, he was of sound mind when he started taking these drugs and he could still discern right from wrong, he just decided that he'd rather get rid of his parents than the drugs" She paused and looked me straight in the eye. "That's murder one in my book" I nodded slowly, that was what I wanted to hear.

"Well, that's all we can hope for really" Andrea looked at me for a moment then smiled.

"It looks like it's been a long day Brenda, why don't you grab Sharon and head home. Dieter Reinhold's going nowhere and your summation can wait until tomorrow" I smiled happily at that idea.

"Sounds like a plan" With that she got up and left as I started packing, already rehearsing my arguments to convince my workaholic girlfriend to pack it in for the day, an argument I intended to win.

**A/N** Thanks for all the well wishes and the welcome backs, they're all very gratefully received.

To the reviewer who wanted a major character injured for story purposes, I'd like to avoid that if I can so no promises either way.

To the reviewer who asked for something bad to happen to Taylor, let's just say Commander Taylor's just desserts will arrive, eventually. Like the Klingon proverb says, revenge is a dish best served cold.


	70. Chapter 70

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**70 ****A cry for help**

Brenda's viewpoint

The day was getting late and I'd put in a full one, the two cartel assassins were still refusing to speak, the sessions I'd had with each of them this morning proving to be nothing more than exercises in frustration. The only blessing was that I was pretty sure that the Robbery / Homicide crew were still in the dark about us capturing the assassins or that we were on to them, plus Pope was still at that conference in New Orleans, keeping him from hassling me all day long, for which I was very grateful. Being able to concentrate on a case without running up to his office at his beck an call just to tell him what we were doing was a rare luxury, one I was really enjoying.

The only real bright spot in the day was that we'd been able to finish up the Reinhold's murders case, stitching it up into an airtight case for the prosecution could wait till tomorrow so by six thirty I was good and ready to get out of here and home. With the Cartel's men in custody we'd decided this morning that we'd all head home tonight, Maura had smiled happily at having Bass and Jo returned home, something that Jane quietly agreed with; for all her teasing about Bass she was obviously fond of him, though she'd choke before actually admitting it.

Sharon had been working late on wrapping up the investigation of a police pursuit on the Foothill Freeway that had resulted in the death of the person being pursued early yesterday, they'd lost control and flipped the car right into the path of an oncoming semi, dead before the wreckage of their stolen Tesla had come to rest. Happy to get out of work I swung by her office and nagged her enough that she'd wrapped up too and headed downstairs with me.

I suggested we hit up a Thai place on the way home but Sharon was putting her foot down, in her view we were eating too much take-out and she wanted home-cooked. Normally I don't mind, after all her cooking was always a treat, but I was tired and just wanted to go home to her place, eat take out and snuggle with her on the couch rather than watch her pottering round the kitchen making things. We were still arguing good naturedly about it as we exited New Parker Centre and walked towards the car park.

"Brenda, contrary to popular belief, well your popular belief anyway, it doesn't take that long to cook something nice"

"I never said that I didn't like your cooking sweetie, I'd just rather snuggle with you than watch you cook" She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, her voice reproving.

"Cooking's not hard Brenda, you should try it more often" Uh oh, I could see where this was leading.

"Sweetie…" She wasn't going to be put off.

"Well, you've learned how to cook a few easy dishes and I enjoy them, so maybe you can learn other recipes too Brenda, that way I'd get to watch you cook a lot more often" I could see where she was going with this; time to try and head this one off.

"But I'm a danger in a kitchen; you know that, why you've told me that yourself" Sharon smirked, she was seeing right through me, I could just tell, as her next sentence proved.

"You used to be, you've got a lot better in the last few months honey. I don't even have to supervise you constantly anymore" I tried appealing to logic, hoping I didn't sound too desperate.

"But you cook so much better than me, plus your foods nicer an all" No luck, Sharon shot me down right quick smart.

"Just because I've been cooking for longer doesn't mean you can't do it just as well, you just need more practice" I grimaced, seeing I wasn't likely to win this one I tried to limit the damage.

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt, 'specially if it stops you nagging me about it" At my words Sharon glanced at me out of the corner of her eye; I could see her suppressing a smile as she spoke, her voice full of amusement.

"We'll make a chef out of you yet honey" I shook my head but smiled a little, playing along.

"I sincerely doubt it, but I s'pose it's only fair, you do end up doing most of the cooking, it'd be nice if I can help out occasionally" I got a full on grin in return, her voice teasing.

"Who says it'll only be occasionally?"

I was about to reply when I heard the sound of a car speeding up, the engine being gunned. I glanced over my shoulder in time to see a dark SUV speeding along the road towards where we were walking, the side windows down and something pointing out. Before I knew it I was diving at Sharon, only to find she'd seen it too and was pulling me down with her.

We tumbled onto the hard pavement in a tangle of limbs as a hail of bullets flew over our prone bodies, hitting the brick wall of the building behind us as we rolled apart and both fumbled for weapons. The car had skidded to a halt about forty feet past us and the kerb side doors were opening, the shooters probably wanting to finish the job. There was a concrete bench and trash bin partially blocking their view of us, enough so they didn't have a clear shot thank god.

I looked up at Sharon to see her pushing her glasses back up her nose with one hand while the other held her Beretta, I'd fished my Glock out and we exchanged a look as I called out.

"You ok?" She nodded jerkily and we scrambled further behind cover as I chanced a look, seeing a Hispanic-looking guy with an Uzi or something similar, small and not too accurate or at least that's what I was hoping. What it lacked in long-range accuracy it sure made up for in firepower though as he sprayed bullets in our direction. I ducked back as he swung it my way, the hail of bullets splintering the concrete of the bench, sending concrete fragments flying and making me cower into a small ball; it distracted him enough though for Sharon to lean round the other side of the garbage can and let off two shots, one of which must have hit cause there was a scream and the shooting stopped.

I looked back round to see him writhing on the ground; hands pressed to his stomach, unfortunately I also saw another guy behind him, swinging his gun back and forward, looking for Sharon.

"Stay back" I hissed. "Second shooter" Before I could get a reply I leaned out and popped off two shots, unfortunately the angle was wrong, I was leaning round the left side and I'm right handed, so it was kinda awkward, upshot being I missed, but sent him ducking before I pulled back into cover.

"Only two there?" It was Sharon, backed up against the bench as I nodded, not looking her way as I spoke.

"I think so, must be a driver in the car too though" I knew this close to the Parker Centre there were bound to be other officers close enough to hear the gunfire. Sharon nodded and hazarded another look, getting a fusillade of shots which sprayed into the bench and the pavement, forcing her to jerk back with a cry.

"Shit!" I looked over at her cry, frantic that she was okay but I couldn't see any blood, frightened for her I called out.

"You ok?" I got a quick nod, she was close to shaking but holding it together, scared as hell actually but then I was too. I was about to say something when I heard shouts from behind us, officers responding to the shots. I risked a quick look but the shooter was running back to the car, his back to me, the car door was open and it was starting to roll. I only had a second or two.

I pushed myself up, feet wide, both hands out in the firing stance, seeing a man in jeans, a grey hoodie with the hood thrown back revealing dark hair, running for the open door; somehow I noticed how gleaming white his runners were; stupid sometimes the things a mind takes in under stress. For a second I thought I should yell to him to drop his weapon, but instead I lined up his running form and hoped for the best as I squeezed off first one, then a second, finally a third shot. At a moving target over a range of thirty-something feet in poor light I wasn't expecting much luck but with a scream he suddenly sprawled face forward on the pavement and lay still in an untidy, jumbled heap.

The driver of the SUV wasn't hanging round any longer, getting out of dodge as fast as he could in a screech of rubber, the car's open doors slamming shut as he fishtailed the car into traffic then around the nearest corner and out of sight. I moved forward, my gun still on my target as Sharon headed towards the guy she'd hit who was still rolling round, moaning and carrying on loudly.

The guy I'd shot wasn't going anywhere; I'd only hit him once, but the blood pooling on the sidewalk under his head told the story. My training kicked in though as I toed the Mac 10 away from his outstretched hand before I knelt and touched the suspect's carotid, checking for a pulse and finding nothing. Not that I'd ever really expected to, my shot had hit the back of his head and exited out through his eye socket, taking a chunk of his face with it, he'd probably been dead before he hit the ground. For a moment I sighed sadly before standing, looking round to see Sharon standing over her shooter as a bunch of uniforms advanced on us with guns out.

"LAPD, drop the weapons!" Sharon turned and looked over her shoulder at them, her voice harsh with stress and fear.

"I'm Commander Raydor and that's Chief Johnson. We need a bus for this guy and a BOLO for their vehicle" I turned fully to face the first uniform, holding my gun pointing to the sky in a non-threat posture; he must have recognised us as his weapon dropped.

"Sorry ma'am" I waved his apology away, he was doing the right thing by his training; another couple of uniforms were right behind him, one of them had his radio out and was calling for a bus while Sharon gave the SUV licence number to yet another, exactly how she'd remembered to look I had no idea. I stood there for a second as I mechanically thumbed the Glock's safety on before the shakes started, so bad I almost dropped it, the backwash of the adrenalin and the suppressed fear and the realisation I'd almost died. Looking at Sharon I saw her push her glasses up and start massaging her eyes. Fearful she was going to cry in shock I immediately stepped over and laid my hand on her arm, keeping my voice low.

"Hey sweetie, you ok?" She shook her head for a moment and then looked up; I could see the way she was trembling, same as I was. This is the part all the Hollywood movies don't show, the aftermath where the reaction sets in, it can be different each time, sometimes shakes or vomiting, other times tears or hysterical laughter, it hits everyone, the knowledge you've survived where someone else hasn't, lived where they'd died, the realisation that it could have been you sprawled face down messily bleeding out on the pavement.

For a second I was ridiculously reminded of that quote by Winston Churchill, that nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result, but to be honest I didn't feel liberated, instead I felt washed out and weak from the aftermath of the flood of adrenaline through my system, the 'fight or flight' reflex had subsided, leaving me feeling drained.

I was feeling it and I could see Sharon was too, it was natural as breathing to reach out and pull her into a hug as she did the same. We stood there for a few seconds, just feeling each other, whole and safe and alive and here, even if we were both trembling, before we both sniffed and by unspoken decision let go and stepped back. We stood there for a moment, naked and vulnerable to each other before we put our work armour back on so we could be Force Investigation's Commander and Major Crimes' Deputy Chief again. Sharon turned and held her pistol out to the first uniformed officer.

"Officer…" She read his name badge and continued. "…Clements, can I ask you to hold our weapons for the FID investigation please" He nodded and took her Beretta, automatically checking the safety. I stood there for a moment; realising there'd have to be an investigation into the shooting. Tao and Elliot would have to run it, given we were involved. Turning I passed my Glock to Clements, before walking over to my where my bag lay on the street. I idly noticed the uniforms had formed a perimeter around us, facing outwards as it suddenly occurred to me that an attempted drive-by on a Deputy Chief and a Commander of the LAPD was definitely going to make waves, especially this close to headquarters. I recovered my bag and fished out my phone, then picked up Sharon's bag and walked it over to her, holding it out as I spoke up to attract her attention back from wherever she was.

"Here sweetie" She looked up at me blankly for a second, before coming back to me and smiling, it was a pale, small thing but it was a start. Sharon took her bag and looked me over, checking I wasn't hurt as I did the same for her before she spoke.

"You alright honey?" I smiled at her concern, nodding, as I felt another series of trembles run through me. Sharon stepped close and I felt her hand on my back, rubbing up and down, gentle but there and helping calm me. Finally I nodded gratefully and stepped away, retrieving my cell from my bag and flicking through the numbers until Mike Tao's name appeared, then called him. Two minutes later and he was ringing off, heading back into work from home. I'd hated to call him but he was needed here, we needed him. I looked round to see Sharon finishing a call to her Lieutenant Elliot; she was calling him in as well.

We stood there, both feeling the crash that followed the adrenaline rush, before I knew it I was sitting on the same concrete bench that had saved our lives, feeling weak as a kitten. Sharon sat down heavily next to me and we sat for a while, not saying much as I stared at concrete chips scattered across the ground by the impact of bullets meant for us.

We both looked up as the ambulance arrived, together with more uniforms; the area was getting crowded, an officer unrolling yellow tape sealing off the shooting site, asking for witness statements, the usual aftermath of a shooting incident. One of the EMT's went to the wounded shooter, the other wanted to check us out but relented when he realised we weren't hit, before heading off to help his partner. Finally I turned and looked at Sharon.

"Shit Sharon, that was close" She nodded slowly, looking down at a shell casing on the ground then idly lifted one foot, examining her shoe, it was one of her nice court shoes but it was horribly scraped.

"Damn, I liked these shoes" She was right, they were ruined, gouges right through the leather upper, I looked up at her and tried on a smile.

"Me too" I got a quick glance and a small smile, before I turned at the sound of running feet, seeing Jane and Sanchez arriving. Maybe a hundred yards behind them I could see one of Sharon's squad, Mark Rosenberg, running this way too. I stood as they arrived, holding up badges as they got to the cordon, then ducking under the tape.

"Jesus Chief, you OK" It was Julio, marginally faster than Jane.

"Neither of you been hit?" We both shook our heads a few seconds later we got the same question from Detective Rosenberg. Apparently dispatch had contacted both squads as soon as they worked out we were involved.

We started to go through what had happened when Jane's cell rang; fishing it out with an apology Jane looked down.

"It's Maura, can I get this?" I nodded and she stepped away. I turned back to listen to Sharon's description when Jane's suddenly tense voice cut through. "What? Strange how…ok Maur, hang on" I turned to look as she turned back at us. "Maura thinks she's being followed" I swallowed into a suddenly dry mouth, '_oh no_'.

"Where is she?" It was Sharon. Jane nodded and spoke.

"Where are you right now babe?" There was a few seconds of silence as Jane nodded before she looked up. "Outbound on the Santa Monica Freeway, there's a dark SUV following her" Her face was tight with fear, fear for the person who meant everything to her, the one she lived for. Sanchez suddenly looked up.

"Has she passed the off ramp to Overland Avenue yet?" Jane shot him a glance but asked the question.

"Maura, have you passed the Overland Avenue off ramp?" She looked back at us and nodded.

"She just passed it" Sanchez's eyes lost focus for a moment then cleared.

"Tell her to take the San Diego Freeway off ramp and head north, then take the Century City off ramp and hang a left onto Santa Monica Boulevard, that's the direction towards West LA's precinct" He turned to me. "We can get them to respond" I nodded as he gestured towards the closest officer and borrowed his radio, calling dispatch. In less than a minute there were black and whites rolling and a helicopter was racing towards the scene as Sanchez spoke to dispatch. "Yeah, silver Mercedes convertible, it's the department's chief medical examiner, she may also be a target, we've just had a drive-by attempt on two senior officers down near headquarters" Jane was still on the phone to Maura, listening then repeating what was happening to us.

"She's turning onto Santa Monica Boulevard now, the SUVs still following" Sanchez nodded and passed the info on to dispatch. Jane was still talking to Maura, trying to stay calm for her.

"There are uniforms and a helicopter heading your way babe, they'll be there for you" She listened for a few seconds then spoke, her voice rising in urgency. "No! Turn onto Santa Monica Boulevard, but if you see a red light, don't stop for anything, run it, you hear me, don't stop!" I nodded, she'd be a sitting duck stopped at the lights. Sanchez looked up at us standing around him, the radio to his ear, even the uniforms nearby were hanging on our words as he relayed dispatch's comments

"Air Eleven has her in sight, there's a dark grey SUV following her, they're guiding in the intercept"

"Maura, help's almost there, you're doing fine, just stay calm" Jane looked up, anguish in her eyes. I knew what she was feeling, the one she loved was in mortal danger and she couldn't be there to protect her; suddenly Sharon groaned as I flicked a glance at her, getting the anguished answer.

"Natalie and Ana, they're probably on their way home now" She brought her cell up, sorting through the directory and hitting call as I realised they'd been on the hit list too.

"Natalie, where are you?" I saw a look of relief pass her face. 'Put her on please, now" There was a slight delay while Sanchez relayed info from dispatch.

"Black and whites have boxed in the SUV, they're getting them out of the car now" His eyes flicked to Jane. "Maura's safe" I saw Jane nod tensely, she was wound achingly tight with fear for Maura.

"Maura, pull over and let the uniforms protect you, ok" Jane nodded unconsciously at whatever Maura was saying as Sharon spoke on the phone.

"Ana, listen to me carefully. There's been a drive by attempt on Benda and I as we were leaving the building but we're ok…no we're fine. Maura's being followed driving home and we've got uniforms intercepting the other car. I want you to take Natalie and head straight for the Tactical Response team on the third floor and wait till we come and get you, ok?" She listened for a moment then nodded. "No, Jane's here with us...good, see you soon" She looked up at me. "Natalie was at Ana's desk, they were getting ready to leave" I nodded, relieved, then frowned.

"You don't think they're safe in there?" Sharon shook her head, her mouth a tight line.

"No, someone tipped those shooters off, we could have exited at any time, but they knew when we walked out the door and which way we were going. There was probably someone waiting for them to leave too" I frowned, not liking the implications at all. Jane suddenly smiled, the relief easily heard in her voice as she talked to Maura.

"Good babe, stay with the officers, they'll protect you" Julio suddenly looked up.

"Shots fired! The guys in the other car are shooting it out" He looked up at Jane who had suddenly paled. "Maura's well out of the way, she's safe" Jane nodded, her face tense.

"There are two officers with her" He nodded and checked with dispatch, nodding before looking across at Jane and relaying the info.

"More uniforms are on the way to her" Jane gave him a grateful nod and spoke to Maura as I half listened, half thought over what Sharon had said. It was a Monday night, we'd often go to the café on Mondays, well not so much recently, but if we had we'd have gone out a different door. Because we were going to be driving to her home, we'd left for the car park, using a door out another side of the building. They must have known somehow, and also known exactly when we'd left; suggesting someone inside the building had tipped them off. With that thought I came to a decision.

"Officer Clements" He stepped closer at my beckoning call. "I know it's not usually protocol for an OIS, but it appears that someone is targeting members of our teams" He nodded, his face tense, like everyone else he'd heard it all in real time. "I don't know about you but I don't like standing here out in the open with traffic still going past, especially with other potential shooters out there" I gestured to the cars still passing, many slowing down for a look. He glanced round and nodded.

"No problem Chief, let's get you inside, no reason to take chances, especially not on my watch" I looked over to Sharon, expecting some disapproval at me running roughshod over protocol but she had pursed her lips and was nodding slowly. I looked back at Clements and forced a smile as I reassured him he was doing the right thing.

"Losing a Chief and a Commander would look bad on your record" Sharon gave a half smile and backed me up.

"One might suggest that would be a career-limiting move" Clements nodded vigorously as Sanchez spoke.

"All bad guys down, two dead, another wounded, one of our guys was hit in the leg, EMTs are on the way" I saw Jane breath in, then let the breath out slowly, before her face tightened at something she'd heard.

"Stay with the police Maura, they'll protect you" She grimaced, a combination of anguish and fear, before she covered the phone. "Maura's checking out the injured until a bus gets there" I nodded, that was Maura all over. I raised an eyebrow at Sharon, getting a nod in return as I spoke up.

"Busy night for OIS" She nodded and turned to Mark Rosenberg who was standing there listening carefully, taking it all in.

"Mark, when Kevin gets here please tell him there's been another OIS out at Century City and I want you to take over that one. Lucy can help you out, the rest of the team can work on this one" He nodded, looking serious. "The Chief and I'll be in Major Crimes when you need to interview us" He nodded once and replied.

"Right you are Commander" He looked into her eyes and dropped his voice low enough that only those closest could hear him. "We've got this one Sharon, head inside and be safe" I turned as I heard Jane speak.

"Sanchez, can you get Maura moved here? Get her car parked at the precinct and her escorted here, plenty of protection" Julio nodded then smiled. "Wait one" He started speaking to dispatch again as Jane spoke to Maura.

"Stay with the uniforms Maura, there are more coming and they'll transport you back to here, don't travel on your own, ok?" I watched as Sanchez asked for Air Eleven to pick up Maura from the closest location and fly her to headquarters. I nodded, that was definitely the smartest, safest option; Sanchez was still speaking into his borrowed radio.

"Authorisation is from..." He looked at me and I nodded; rank has its privileges and I'd no problem with him using my name here. "...Deputy Chief Johnson, Major Crimes" Sanchez returned the radio to Officer Clements and turned to Jane, reassuring her. "Officers will escort her to Century City precinct house, they have an emergency heliport in the car park and the chopper will pick her up from there" Jane smiled for the first time since this started and laid her hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks Sanchez, I really appreciate it" She got a nod and a smile from Julio and then started relaying the info to Maura. I looked around, it was time to go.

"Let's head back inside people and try and make sense of all this" Several uniforms escorted us back to the doors of headquarters, getting a thank you from both Sharon and I, before we made our way up to the squad room, stopping by Tactical Response to collect Natalie and Ana.

Two hours later we'd given our statements to FID and had most of Major Crimes assembled, they were in a foul mood at the danger to us, while Jane had escorted a pensive Maura down from the roof landing pad and we were sitting round trying to get a handle on it all.

Tao and Buzz were working at his desk, pulling up surveillance footage from the camera's surrounding the building. There was silence as they retrieved the footage of our ambush, so quiet you could hear a pin drop, it wasn't all that close-up but you could see everything that happened. Sharon had nodded to herself and I knew what she was thinking; with this footage the OIS was open and shut, it'd be closed by morning.

"Chief, we've got something" It was Buzz calling from the media room where he was working on pulling surveillance video from the building's external cameras. At his call we gathered round the media room desk as he tapped the screen.

"The SUV was parked up the street on North Main, perfect for when you and the Commander would walk out the door and head south towards the café's up that way. Instead you left for the car park, exiting out onto West Second. You can see here they suddenly pull out only seconds after you exited and accelerate down onto South Main and turn onto West Second, catching you near Broadway" I stood up and caught Sharon's eye, she was thinking the same thing, nodding as I spoke for the benefit of the team.

"Someone tipped them off which door we were using and when" There were grim nods all round before Flynn spoke.

"It'd have to be a cop, no one else could sit around in our foyer for too long without attracting attention" Gabriel nodded, turning to Buzz.

"Can you pull the lobby footage, see who's there?" He nodded and set to work as Provenza frowned.

"It won't be any of the Robbery / Homicide people, that'd be too easy" We nodded as Jane looked round at us, her face tight with screwed down anger.

"They'll all have airtight alibi's, probably somewhere public like a bar or club or something making themselves be noticed" Several people nodded at that, it made sense.

Twenty minutes later and it was clear from the CCTV footage; the only people in a position to see which way we were leaving were cops, anyone of at least a dozen could have called it in, leaving me with a sick feeling in my stomach. I looked around the room and saw similar worried looks, basically, with the exceptions of the people in Major Crimes and FID; we didn't know exactly who we could trust. Provenza looked absolutely filthy.

"God damn it. That's twice in a week and this time a cop here in headquarters was in on it, who the hell can we trust?" Andy looked at him and shook his head.

"Not many, us, FID, they're loyal to the Commander, apart from that we can't be sure of anyone" There were grim looks all round, even as I pulled a face, I had to look at this logically. I looked round the room and spoke up.

"I will not live my life in fear, nor will I suspect every one of the 10,000 plus officers in the department, not without good reason. We just need to take precautions until we can take down the people we know are responsible for this mess" There were looks exchanged amongst the group, finally Julio spoke, looking worried.

"But Chief, like the Lieutenant said, that's twice in a few days, they're not going to stop. You and the Commander and the others here are all targets. We can't protect all six of you 24 hours a day" Something he said rang a bell as I stood there, leaving Sharon to answer.

"So far it's been a losing streak, we have the assassins in custody and they'll eventually have to start talking sooner or later, plus we have two injured shooters from tonight that we need to question, plus two dead shooters, that's not looking too bad so far" Gabriel shook his head.

"With respect ma'am, we've been lucky three times counting Doctor Isles…" He nodded respectfully to where Maura was sitting, getting a small smile in return before he continued. "…on the other hand they only have to get lucky once" There was silence at that, all of us thinking that over, he was right of course. My brain was still chewing on something Sanchez had mentioned, leaving it to Natalie to speak from where she was sitting next to Maura, Ana standing protectively behind her.

"I don't know about you but I'm starving, I haven't eaten and I doubt many of you have either" She smiled. "We'll all think better with a decent meal in us" There was general agreement and orders were placed with a Thai and a pizza place. Nat was right, we'd need the food; we could be here for a while. Meanwhile I was still dredging, a memory had been jogged by Julio's comment and I could almost remember it. Sharon noticed I was distracted of course, sidling up beside me and speaking quietly.

"You ok Brenda?" She put her hand on my shoulder and I unconsciously leaned into the contact as I nodded.

"Just something Sanchez said about 24 hour protection…" She nodded slowly, her voice quiet as she thought it through.

"To protect us we'd need a full time team on each of us…" Her voice trailed off as she looked at me. I nodded and stood up off the desk I'd been leaning against.

"C'mon Sharon, I've got an idea" She followed me into my office and I sat down behind the desk, before rifling through the business card box in my draw, finally dragging out the one I was looking for. Sharon looked over my shoulder and made a non-committal noise deep in her throat. I looked up at her.

"Well, he did say they owed us" At her skeptical look I shrugged. "It's worth a try"

She thought about it for a few seconds, looking out into the main office where Natalie and Maura were sitting close together, talking quietly, probably about what had happened. I noticed that both Ana and Jane were standing close to them, trying to act casual but standing so they could watch over the various entrances to the Murder Room, both looking alert and a little twitchy. She looked down at the business card and then back at me, a worried look on her face, finally she looked up at me, nodding slowly.

"Make the call honey" Given it was late I bypassed the office number on the card, going straight to the cell number also listed there. I dialed the number and waited, putting the phone on speaker as it rang.

"_Carl Waters, Talisman Personal Services_"

"Good evening Mr Waters, it's Brenda Leigh Johnson of the LAPD, I'm sorry to be calling you so late, I hope you don't mind"

"_Not at all Chief Johnson, you know you're welcome to call anytime_"

"I appreciate that Mr Waters, I really do"

"_To what do I owe the pleasure of the call Chief?_" I looked up at Sharon, to see her green eyes looking back at me. I took a breath.

"I need your help"


	71. Chapter 71

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**71 Life on the high seas**

Natalie's viewpoint

I was sitting there, nerves finally settling down but still tense from what had happened; Brenda and Sharon in a shootout right outside this very building, assassins after Maura, god knows what had been waiting for Ana and me. Right now I was sitting with Maura, just being there for her in case she needed me, plus having her close was reassuring, to know that she was ok.

Of course with Jane and Ana standing guard on us, I felt safer anyway. They were talking quietly, but I could see that they were standing in such a way that they were watching all the entrances to Major Crimes' area. They were taking no chances; their protective natures had kicked into overdrive at a threat to our safety and while I appreciated their natural instincts to stand between us and any and all harm I was saddened that here we were in the middle of the LAPDs headquarters and we still couldn't take our safety for granted.

We'd had some takeout delivered and were talking round what we could do, well the detectives were, I was just sitting with Maura and we were listening as the team worked through theories and potential scenarios. We'd both noticed that Brenda and Sharon had seemed somehow calmer since they'd disappeared into her office for a few minutes. I don't know what they knew or had planned but I trusted them to come up with something, they were or friends after all, if I couldn't trust them…

The Chief's cell rang over where she was standing with Sharon; the conversation was short before she wrapped it up before turning and asking David Gabriel to bring up her visitor from the ground floor reception area. A few minutes later he walked back in, flanked by a man I recognised, we'd met the night of the LAPD Ball during the investigation into the car bombing. I was trying to dredge up his name when Maura leaned over, she'd remembered him.

"That is Carl Waters, the owner of the security firm whose employee was killed in the Ritz Carlton car bombing; I wonder what brings him here?" I was about to reply when I noticed both Brenda and Sharon smiling, he wasn't a surprise to them. Brenda stepped over and shook his hand.

"Mister Waters, thank you so very much for coming" He nodded, the light catching his close cropped grey hair and moustace; with his tall, solid build, deep tan and erect bearing he still looked like the army colonel from central casting, his voice was deep and crisp, just as I remembered it.

"Chief Johnson, glad to be here, I just wish the situation was different" Brenda nodded.

"Don't we all, please, let me introduce you to the others; you'd recognise many of them from our last meeting" He nodded as we were all introduced. I glanced at Maura and saw her eyes narrow, she had a putting it all together look, she'd worked something out, well she was the certified genius in the room. I leaned over to speak quietly.

"I know that look, what?" Maura glanced at me and smiled.

"I believe Mister Waters is here in a professional capacity" I frowned then suddenly the light went on. Waters was the boss of Talisman Personal Services, a high-end personal protection company that specialized in protecting celebrities, the rich and the famous. Waters was ex-US Special Forces and his people were recruited from Special Forces from round the world; they were good at their job; very, very good in fact, if not the best in their business. We'd met when one of his employees had been killed in a car bombing at the Ritz Carlton, the same place and time that the LAPD Ball was being held, we'd worked with his people to solve the case and put the bomber away for good. (_Intersecting Lines Book 1 Chapter's 74-77_). Brenda finished the round of introductions and turned to Carl Waters.

"So Mister Waters, do you think you can help us out?" He didn't beat around the bush, getting right to the point.

"Chief Johnson, I've spoken to my people and the majority of them not currently on jobs immediately volunteered to help, you'll have 24 hour protection for the next few days, two people for each of you" Brenda smiled and I could see her shoulders relax slightly, a little of the tension there draining away, I could understand why, we'd be safe as we possibly could be with his people looking after us. Brenda smiled a little tightly, given the threat that had driven us to this point I couldn't blame her for it, though the good news we'd just got had helped and spoke, a tinge of relief in her voice.

"I hope we won't need your people for very long Mister Waters, we just have to put the people responsible for this mess away, quickly" Carl nodded once as he spoke.

"They're there for as long as you need them" Sharon and Brenda exchanged a glance before Brenda smiled a little ruefully.

"Let's hope it won't be long, especially given the costs" I saw Maura sit up straighter at that then stand and speak before Waters could reply.

"The cost is immaterial, whatever the cost they will be met in full" Everyone's head turned at that, as Maura stood there, calm and composed. I frowned as I looked up at her, Water's people were good but they didn't come cheap. Brenda went to speak but Waters interrupted her, shaking his head and looking at Maura.

"Excuse me ma'am. But you don't understand. Every member volunteered their time free. You and the others here sent Tony Jefferson's killer to death row, then attended his funeral and helped his fiancé get closure, we don't forget our friends" Maura smiled politely but her voice was firm, she wasn't to be denied.

"I appreciate it Mister Waters, I truly am grateful for the generosity of you and your people, as I am certain the rest of us are as well, however your people have families to support, therefore the cost is immaterial, whatever the price they will be paid in full" Brenda looked over at Maura, her voice hesitant.

"Maura are you sure, I was going to try and get the department to cover as much as I could..." Maura smiled gently at her, letting her down gently.

"Brenda, as I am sure you are aware, the department at times struggles to pay overtime, the chances of them signing off on this are slim to non-existent. Therefore the Isles Foundation will cover any and all costs" At Brenda's uncertain look Maura smiled and continued. "The Foundation and its board would be extremely distressed to learn that its Chairperson had died when it was preventable, so they will be more than willing and able to pay all costs" Waters looked between Maura and Brenda before speaking.

"I meant it, my people are happy to help out gratis, we owe you" Brenda looked to Maura, who shook her head and spoke, looking around the room at each of the six of us under direct threat.

"Thank you Mister Waters, I am sure I speak for all of us in expressing our gratitude but as I said, your people have families to support, so this will be a standard protection role, billed and paid for as such" I noticed everyone was sitting or standing quietly, watching the discussion. I knew Talisman's services didn't come cheap, the very best didn't, but it did make me wonder, not for the first time, exactly how much Maura was actually worth.

Talisman's 24 hour protection cost up to fifteen thousand a day per person, even a discounted rate for the six of us worked out to a lot of money very, very quickly, but Maura hadn't batted an eyelid at up to ninety thousand dollars a day. I'd always know Maura hadn't really ever been worried about money but this was something else, something way beyond what I understood. Waters stood there for a second and then nodded once, conceding gracefully.

"As you wish ma'am. I have people scrambling and can have two people assigned to each of you 24 hours a day starting from eight tomorrow morning. Right now I have three people on their way here to cover tonight. I'm sorry for the delay but it was kinda short notice" I looked at my watch, it was almost ten and we were all tired, Maura, Sharon and Brenda most of all. As I did Waters spoke again, asking a very pertinent question. "Where were you all planning to stay tonight?" Brenda looked around, then back at Waters as Sharon spoke up.

"We were planning to stay at home tonight, but that's probably unwise, the people behind these attempts know our home addresses" She looked over at Ana. "We stayed at a Bureau safe house last night, maybe we could again?" I looked up behind me to where Ana was standing in time to see Ana shake her head.

"It's being used Chief, we need an alternative" Andy was the first to speak up.

"Hotels are out, same reason as last time" At Waters' questioning look he shrugged. "The scumbags behind this have access to the department's computers, they can search hotel databases for names and credit cards" Waters nodded, seemingly unconcerned.

"We can get you booked into a hotel under my company's name, or better yet under one of our shell companies' names. No one will be able to connect the two" There were nods all round until Jane shook her head dismissively, bringing up something I hadn't considered.

"The Chief here's well known thanks to the media, while Maura and Natalie both have a media profile, we'll need something where they won't be spotted" I frowned at that as a spirited discussion ensued, she was right, for better or worse we'd all been in the media and might be recognised, which could spell disaster. I was half listening in to the discussion bouncing round the room as I was suddenly hit by inspiration; for a few seconds I mulled over the idea, it might work but it would be very expensive. Before I could speak Waters' phone rang, his people had arrived downstairs; Sanchez went off to get them as the discussion resumed, while I turned to Maura, speaking softly.

"I've got an idea, but I'm reluctant to suggest it, it's got to be your call" Maura turned to look at me, her lovely smile unconsciously lighting up the room and inviting me to go on.

"I am sure it will be a good one Natalie, what is it?" I looked round and then leaned in, speaking even more quietly.

"Remember one option was holding your wedding reception out on a boat. Some of the bigger ones are large enough to sleep all of us on board; we could board and sail…" Maura's smile widened happily, jumping onboard the idea.

"And no one would know where we were or be able to follow us" She clasped her hands together with excitement. "Natalie that is an excellent idea" I made a so-so rocking gesture with my hand.

"I wasn't sure, it won't be cheap and you're already spending way too much of your money on us…" The look on Maura's faced changed, becoming hard and determined as she sat up straighter, her voice suddenly firming.

"I would spend every cent I had if it was necessary to keep Jane and the people I love safe, so that point is not up for discussion, now or ever" This was a different Maura, the steel normally very carefully hidden under the velvet suddenly visible, her tone brooked no argument so I sat back and nodded. Maura stood and turned.

"May I have your attention please, there may be another option available" She outlined her plan and there was general agreement that it would work. Waters in particular liked it, as he pointed out it immediately limited access to us, we couldn't be found or threatened for at least eight hours a day which as he put it, was the gold standard in his business.

An internet search and several phone calls later we had a boat organised, the _Aviva_, an impressively large and luxurious motor cruiser that could sleep a score in utter bespoke comfort. Upon being initially called they had protested about the late call and the short notice but Maura had basically told them money was no object which shut them up immediately. I shuddered to think of how much all of this was going to cost Maura or this Isles Foundation, of which I knew nothing but made a note to do my research as soon as I could, but she was blithely unconcerned, once again stating it was a small price to pay for ensuring our safety.

An hour and half later we were at the docks to find _Aviva_ lying there awaiting us. She was very big, with three polished wooden decks and ten cabins with more than a dozen crew on hand and so beautiful, all gleaming, glowing white in the dock's lamplight, her name outlined in golden script on the sides of the superstructure and on the stern, all picked out in lights. The Captain, a tall, quiet man with salt and pepper hair met us at the top of the gangway, decked out in a white uniform with gold rings on his shoulders, polite but obviously curious about the late night call and the urgency.

We all turned to Carl Waters who had accompanied us to the ship, one after the other we shook his hand and thanked him, he'd turned everything on for us so quickly and his three men with us just radiated quiet, competent confidence.

"We'll see you back here at eight tomorrow, I'll have your security details waiting for you then. In the meantime I'll have your places checked out before you swing by on the way to get changed" We'd handed over our house keys to him and he would make sure they were safe before we arrived. It was all a little scary and disorientating actually.

Ten minutes later Aviva was pulling away from the docks and heading out to sea as we explained to the Captain what was going on and why he had armed men patrolling his ship. Once he understood that we were all cops, that there was little real risk to his ship and crew and that we were basically using it as a mobile sanctuary he relaxed a little. We briefed him that he would probably be needed for up to a week, refuel during the day if necessary but for the rest of the time stay out at sea where no one could get to them and then coming into port to pick us up before heading out to sea for the night.

Not long afterwards one of the stewards was showing us to our cabins, the ship's interior was amazing, lots of polished wood and stainless steel and thick, soft carpeting, the sort of decor that wouldn't be out of place in a really high-end luxury hotel while the suite was large and lovely, big soft bed, fully equipped en-suite, wood panels and lovely abstract artwork on the walls. If it wasn't for the soft grumble of the ship's diesels and the slight, gentle rocking of the swell you wouldn't be able to tell you were at sea.

It was well past midnight and we both needed a shower but I was too anxious and twitchy to stand still, I needed to get my head straight so I sent Ana in first, bless her she understood why I needed some personal space and didn't push, reminding me once again how lucky I was to have her in my life. While she was using the shower I stepped outside and made my way out into the hall…corridor…whatever, intending to go up on deck for a few minutes, get some fresh air and get my emotions under control as I watched the glow of Los Angeles lights fade behind us as we made our way out to sea, to safety.

As I quietly closed the door to the cabin behind me, I heard a sob coming from one of the other cabins, I couldn't make out the owner, it might have been Maura, but it could just have easily been Sharon or Brenda or even Jane, she might be the bad-ass detective with everyone else, but the thought of losing Maura would cut through all of that outside armor like a knife through butter. I stood there for a moment, but it wasn't repeated and I felt a little intrusive, an aural witness to some very private, personal grief, so I turned and made my way aft and up a set of stairs to the main deck and then down another out onto the stern, seeing the glow lighting up at least half of the horizon behind us, thinking back to that wail of pain and anguish.

Not that I'd be any better if it was Ana in danger and I knew she'd feel the same about me, it's just how it was, we lived for each other, we needed each other. I paused for a moment; we were probably handling it better because we hadn't been directly endangered, we'd still been at work, not in a shootout or being pursued by a car full of hired killers, god knows what had been planned for us.

As I stood there I saw movement off to one side, turning to see it was one of the Talisman security people walking the decks, he obviously realised I'd seen him as he spoke up, his voice quiet but carrying, his accent soft, definitely not American.

"Good evening ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you" I shook my head and tried to reassure him it had nothing to do with him.

"You didn't, not at all. It's reassuring to know you're here" He nodded once, barely seen in the dim light as he spoke, once again that accent teasing me.

"That's our job ma'am" I smiled a little; so gentle and so polite, especially given what their job entailed, but I felt the need to correct him.

"It's Natalie, or Nat actually, ma'am makes me sound old" I could see his teeth in the dark as he smiled and nodded.

"Yes ma'am. Will you settle for Miss Dearing?" I nodded slowly.

"If you're more comfortable with that, then yeah, ok" We stood there for a moment, it was calm and the ship's movement was gentle. I looked down and saw the water tossing behind us, the wake lit a little by some phosphoresce, I recall reading once that light was caused by little marine organisms, before I felt a wave of fatigue wash over me, leaving me feeling drained in its wake as I gripped the railing for stability and reassurance, then looked to the Talisman person standing close.

"What a waste, a beautiful ship like this, it could be wonderful, spending time on something so lovely with friends, but instead we're running and hiding" I looked up at him. "Having to have people like you…I'm sorry; I didn't get your name?" He smiled again; his voice was so soft for someone so capable of violence.

"Ben Roberts, Miss Dearing" I nodded, trying to place his accent, it was soft and a bit like another Talisman specialist we'd dealt with during the bombing.

"Are you a New Zealander like Bill Harakaia, I can't quite place your accent" His smile widened as he looked out to sea.

"Close Miss Dearing; Australian" I nodded, hardly surprised really, Carl Waters had said he'd hired the best, irrespective of nationality; anyone he employed would be damned good at their job, which begged the question.

"We're you Special Forces too Ben?"

"That I am Miss Dearing, ex-Special Air Services Regiment. Did almost fifteen years in before Carl offered me a job" He turned to look at me. "We'd met in Iraq and again in the Ghan"

"Do you like it, the job I mean, nurse-maiding people like me?" He turned to look at me and stepped a little closer, emerging from the gloom and out into the reflected light I suddenly realised he was really, really tall, he had to be well over six five and really solidly built. He looked down at me and spoke quietly, he looked like the sort of person who didn't need to raise their voice often; he was impressive enough anyway.

"Most of the people we look after are celebrities and the like. Some of them have crazy fans and stalkers, others have weird ex's who can't let go. They run the whole gamut, from nice people to people you wouldn't piss on if they were on fire, pardon the language ma'am" I grinned at his apologetic tone.

"I've heard worse, believe me, my partner Ana is ex-Army" He nodded and smiled briefly.

"I remember talking to her at Tony's funeral; she'd been in Afghanistan too. We swapped a few war stories, her, Bill and I" His smile faded. "Anyway, you asked about if we liked our jobs" He looked out at the lights slowly fading over the horizon. "Not always, some of the people we look after aren't all that pleasant. Some are good, some not so much" He turned, looking straight at me. "This job, protecting you and your friends cause you're doing yours, yeah, I'm thinking this is one of the good ones"

I stood there for a moment, looking up at this big man whose job was to safeguard me and the others, thinking something was wrong with the world; we were supposed to be the good guys, not fleeing into hiding, protected from other cops by men with guns who were being paid to maybe take a bullet for us. He must have seen the expression on my face in the low lighting set into the deck.

"Don't worry Miss Dearing" He paused and smiled gently, his accent a little more pronounced. "Natalie. It's our job, we're real good at it and we'll protect you. We don't like all of our clients but you and your friends are different, you helped avenge one of our own and we don't forget that, we owe you for Tony" I nodded, a little ashamed that he'd felt the need to reassure me, or that I needed it so badly.

"I'm sorry Ben, it's all been a bit of a shock" I stood there, feeling a little cold and lonely and lost, I needed Ana, needed her arms around me and to have her tell me everything'd be all right. Ben looked down at me for a moment, his voice soft and reassuring.

"I understand, it's all come on in a rush and it's a bit much to take in. Like I said, we'll make sure nothing bad happens to you and from what I understand, you should be able to go back to your normal life soon enough" I looked up at this big, confident man, he barely knew me and was trying to be reassuring. On a whim I stepped over to him and stretched up, my heels giving me enough height to reach up, kissing him on the cheek before stepping back.

"Thank you Ben, I appreciate it, we all do" He nodded gently and smiled.

"Get some sleep Miss Dearing, I've no doubt that tomorrow will be a long day" I nodded slowly.

"Good night Ben and thank you" I turned to head back to our cabin when he spoke again.

"Sleep well Natalie" I turned to see him standing there in the dim light and nodded before turning away. With people like him protecting us I just might.


	72. Chapter 72

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2 **

**72 Reassurance**

Brenda's viewpoint

I sat down on that lovely soft bed and closed my eyes for a moment, hearing the distant, muted growl of the ship's engines as they powered us away from the city, putting plenty of ocean between us all and the dangers waiting back there. In the press of the moment I'd managed to push everything that had happened out of my mind but now, with no need to be the Chief, the calm one in charge, the one with the answers, I felt the opening of a black hole deep within me, sucking me in.

I could have died tonight; Sharon could have died, if we'd not been lucky we'd be dead and some of our friends with us. Instead of sitting on a luxurious boat heading out to sea I could have been mourning Sharon. My mind stuttered at that, I'd been too busy before to focus on that, but now... I could have lost her.

Never to hold her again, to kiss her, to laugh with her at the world, not wake up with her snuggled into me or feel her come apart under me and hold her afterwards. We'd only just found each other and she could have been ripped away, the reality of it shook me hard, I could feel the churning wave of grief and sorrow and helplessness surging through me. I tried to fight it, reminding myself that we'd survived, that she was here with me, alive and whole and real, but the delayed onset of shock was making a mockery of my logic. I wasn't thinking, I was feeling and the wave was dragging me under as I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter and told myself over and over again, she hadn't died, we were both here, alive and safe and together.

I heard a click as Sharon closed the door to the bathroom behind her and opened my eyes to see her standing there; looking smaller without her heels, jacket and glasses, the exhaustion evident in her slightly slumped posture, she seemed somehow fragile, nothing like her normally confident, assured public self.

"Hey sweetie" I patted the bed beside me and smiled wanly, after tonight I just wanted her close. She smiled a little tiredly and walked over, turning to sit next to me, our hands automatically reaching out and settling together, mine in hers and hers in mine, it was obvious she needed the comfort of closeness as much as I did.

"Lovely ship" I nodded at her words, looking around and taking in the tasteful decor, the snowy white linen, the original art on the walls, the wood paneling and deep pile carpet, all adding up to an overall feeling of expensive luxury.

"It is, I s'pose" I looked up into Sharon's eyes, seeing the dullness there, the fatigue and the tension as I continued, trying to put how I was feeling into words. "I know it's lovely and all but is it a bad thing that I'd rather be at home with you, sitting and laughing at some silly cop show on television or getting ready to go to bed…" I made a vague gesture around the cabin, well luxurious suite really. "…rather than running and hiding" Sharon nodded, slowly looking round, then coming back to look at me, her emerald eyes deep and soft and glittering with imminent tears. I could feel them welling up inside me, I could have lost her tonight, she could have been the one lying dead on the pavement, how could I have gone on without her? Sharon suddenly shook her head, her hand squeezing mine, the pain and anguish I was feeling reflected in her voice.

"God no, I want the same thing, not hiding out, even if it is in an opulent refuge" We sat there for a moment, just looking at each other, as tears started running down our cheeks. Neither of us made any effort to stop them, before a racking sob tore its way out of Sharon's throat as she buried herself in my arms, her body shaking with emotion. I just held her and cried with her, my tears mingling with her hair as we sat there, clinging to each other in a world turned upside down.

I realised we were gently rocking each other, wrapped in each other's arms, sitting there together, Sharon's hand making meaningless circles on my back, mine endlessly stroking her hair as we comforted each other, just reveling in the fact that we were alive. Finally Sharon pulled herself together enough to speak, tear tracks in her mascara.

"I could have lost you honey" She pulled back and looked at me. "I can't lose you, I can't" I nodded past the huge lump in my throat, forcing the words out.

"It's all I can think about, that I might have lost you, that you could have died back there" We clung together for a moment, until she leaned back and looked at me, then spoke softly.

"God Brenda, look at us, we're a mess" I tried to smile, probably not very well.

"But we didn't, we're ok Sharon, we're here, safe together" The sadness in her eyes and her voice was heart-rending.

"I know but I just can't stop thinking about what happened" I nodded.

"Me either, it's like I'm stuck on replay" We sat there for a while, not needing to say anything, just happy to be together, before she smiled at me and spoke.

"We must be a dreadful sight, god knows my makeup must be a mess" I smiled back and nodded gently.

"Yeah, mine's probably just as bad. C'mon sweetie, we're both grimy, we need a shower, besides it'll settle our nerves and help us get to sleep" I stood and tugged at her hand gently, forcing a smile as she rose to follow me. I reached out and started unbuttoning her blouse as one side of her mouth twitched.

"A shower, just a shower?" I tried to keep the silly smile off my face and out of my voice.

"Well, unless you want something more…" She let a full blown smile out at me, her voice carrying a touch of humor.

"If you're planning on us having a quickie in the shower, I have to tell you it's not as big as the one at my place" I looked up into her mossy green eyes, seeing the first sparks of amusement kindled there, a joy to see given all that had happened, as she reached out to my blouse; I felt my spirit lift and smiled as I finished with the buttons and started tugging her blouse out of her skirt, teasing her gently as I did.

"I don't know whether to be amused or appalled that you've already checked out the shower's suitability for sex sweetie" She smiled gently, the buttons on my blouse rapidly opening under her skilled fingers as she replied.

"A girl's got to be prepared, never know when the opportunity might arise" Her hands slid the top off my shoulders and she was turning me round, those nimble fingers seeking out my skirt's zipper as I chuckled.

"Sharon Raydor, girl guide, who would have guessed. I'll just bet you had all the merit badges too" Her voice was low and carried some of her usual humour.

"Well, I am good at starting fires..." We chuckled softly together as between us we stripped down to our underwear, hanging everything up at Sharon's insistence, pointing out we'd be wearing them again tomorrow until we got some fresh clothes. That done Sharon led the way into the bathroom, which wasn't all that small, especially given we were on a boat, the shower was as large as the one in my apartment. She stripped as I turned the water on, fortunately we both liked it as hot as possible; once it was set I pushed her under and stripped off as well before stepping in and shutting the sliding glass door behind me.

Sharon was waiting, even with her makeup washed off, hair plastered to her head and water running down her face she was beautiful and I quickly stepped into her arms, sliding mine under hers and feeling her shoulder blades under my palms as I pulled her to me, resting my chin on her shoulder as she did the same, pressed cheek to cheek. I don't know how long we stood there, saying nothing as the water cascaded down over us, just holding and being held, as the sluicing water wore away at the nightmare, eroding its hold on us and exposing the reality underneath, Sharon was here, I was here and we held each other in our arms, safe, for now, from the world and all its craziness.

Finally I felt her move as her head turned and her lips caressed my cheek, a light kiss, followed by more, all interspersed with our low whispers of love, of care and of gratitude. I turned my head and thought I saw tears interspersed with the shower's water making their way down her face, the sight threatening to set me off again as well, instead I leaned in and whispered into her ear.

"Relax sweetie, let me take care of you" I got a low throaty chuckle in return, before she calmed enough to reply.

"You sure?" I smiled and nodded, holding her eyes.

"Yep" I got a lovely small smile and a tiny nod in return. Gently I disengaged and turned her round, realising that the shower had a shelf that was fully stocked with a range of nice English bath and body products for men and women. Floris, James Bond's favorite brand I weirdly recalled as I reached out and sorted through until I came to the shampoo and conditioner. I slowly worked first the shampoo, then the conditioner through her silken hair, Sharon's hair is beautiful and I've always loved how it feels passing through my fingers, pressed against my cheek or spilled across a pillow. Half way through Sharon turned and pulled me in for a gentle, loving kiss, then started washing my hair too as we stood there, bodies touching, staring into each other's eyes, occasionally kissing, lost in the reality of each other, whole and here.

Finally it came time for to rinse our hair; instead Sharon pulled me into her arms and kissed me deeply, her tongue demanding entry, access I was more than happy to give her. We stood there as the water cascaded over us, rinsing our hair clean as we kissed, hands slowly sliding up and down our bodies, lost in love. Finally I broke away, the water running down her face as she blinked at me; I'd never seen her more vulnerable or more lovely.

"I love you so much Sharon" She smiled, a soft and warm one, the smile she saves just for me.

"I hope it's as much as I love you Brenda, because I love you with my heart and soul" I nodded slowly.

"You're everything I've ever wanted, my lover, my friend, my partner, my…" I paused, looking down, suddenly terrified to say it. Sharon looked at me; moving out from under the water and tilting her head down to look into my eyes as she spoke softly, her voice full of concern.

"What's up Brenda? Is everything ok?" I nodded, swallowing convulsively. "Is something wrong?" I shook my head, afraid to say what I was thinking, afraid it'd be the wrong thing, the wrong time, the wrong way, wrong everything. "Please honey, tell me" I swallowed and then spoke.

"I love you Sharon, you're everything to me and maybe one day, maybe you'd be willing to be more…more than my girlfriend I mean…" I looked down, terrified of what I'd said, I seemed to have no filters or barriers when I was with Sharon, especially now, it was all just me with no defences, sure that I didn't need them with her. Sometimes though that lack of barriers made me say things better left unsaid. As I was standing there petrified, Sharon brought her hand up to my chin and gently lifted it up to make me look into her eyes, as I saw the softness and love there I felt the tension melt.

"Brenda, if you're suggesting what I think you are, well I hadn't really thought that far ahead, but I'd be willing, if you are" I stood there, my mouth dropping open, then sniffling to swallow my tears, I'd thought I was all done crying tonight but apparently not. We stood there for a few seconds, before I lunged into her arms, slamming her back against the shower wall, desperate for her, to kiss her, to feel her, to lose myself in her embrace, our bodies moulding together.

My kiss was urgent, desperate, met with equal force, Sharon's hand in my hair, the other squeezing my butt as I slid a thigh between hers, my hands on her hips, gasping as she lifted her leg against my core, we'd become so good at this dance, our bodies working as one, kisses interspersed with low moans and groans, lost in each other.

Finally I pulled back, seeing her gasping the same way I was, desperate for each other. I saw her there, smaller without her Commander Raydor armor, vulnerable and tiny and fragile and beautiful, only I got to see her this way, I was the only one she let in when she was like this and my heart went out to her even more.

I leaned in and kissed her again, stepping back as she went to deepen it, before I reached out and spun her around, pushing her against the marble-tiled wall, sandwiched between it and me as my hands roamed over her, sliding up her sides and cupping her breasts, fingers searching out her hard peaks, tweaking them gently, drawing a shuddering gasp, she was painfully turned on, something I could easily understand, I was as well. I kissed her neck, her shoulder, nibbling on her earlobe and drawing a low moan, music to my ears. I almost sank my teeth in, to mark her, to remind her who she belonged to and who belonged to her, but I didn't, it wasn't a time for that, we didn't need pain, not tonight, not after everything that'd happened. Instead I ground my hips into the swell of her buttocks, feeling her push back.

"Are you wet for me sweetie?" I breathed the words into her ear, running my tongue around the edge of her ear, drawing a moan before she could reply.

"You have to ask?" Her words drew a low chuckle from me.

"I guess not" I pushed her wet hair over one shoulder as I kissed my way up the back of her neck, drawing a little shiver from her, I'd learned she was always sensitive there, Sharon tilting her head to expose more of her neck and throat to me, offering herself to me.

With one hand still on her breast, I let the other slide down over her torso, running around her belly button and making her squirm back against me, before sliding further down as she ground her butt back into my hips, the contact raising my own heat up another notch. I slid a little further down, ghosting over her neatly trimmed curls, drawing a low, needy groan. Lower still and I slid my fingertip between her folds, drawing a buck of the hips and another low, long drawn out groan, the sound spurring me on. Curling my fingers I teased across her lips, seeking out her clit, feeling the tiny shudder run through her when I found it, teasing back and forward, flicking it gently as I felt it grow more prominant, my touch drawing gasps and needy moans from her as Sharon's head fell back. I leaned in against her and turned my head to whisper into her ear.

"God Sharon, I love you like this, all wet and ready for me" Sharon's voice was low and needy.

"Fuck me Brenda, please, oh god please..." I smiled at her eagerness, her desperate need, before I nipped her earlobe, feeling her jump at the sharp sensation. I smiled as I sped up my fingers, her body taunt and humming under me. I felt Sharon's hand take hold of mine, pulling it away from her breast and pulling it higher before she took my index and middle fingers into her mouth, sucking and licking them gently, enveloped in wet warmth, I couldn't help it, a moan fled my lips, full of heat and desire.

Realising that as much fun as this was, I needed to finish the job right, I pulled my hands away from her core and mouth, dropping to my knees behind her, gently pushing her thighs apart, before a spark of inspiration struck me. I shifted position, kneeling on one leg with the other foot flat on the marble floor of the shower and spread wide up against the wall, then lifted Sharon's leg and placed her foot on my knee, further spreading her open and giving me even better access.

"Brenda, you ok there, I'm not too heavy am I?" I smiled, both charmed and amused by her concern.

"Never" I looked up, seeing her open and exposed, easily accessible. "Hang on tight sweetie" With that I leaned in and let my tongue run through her folds, dragging a low moan from Sharon and making me smile, remembering how far we'd come from that first night together. Then it had all been strange and new and a little frightening, now though I wondered how I'd gone so long without it, without her taste on my tongue.

I'd grown to love the sensations I could give her, the sounds I could drive from Sharon's throat, to hear her moans, her cries and best of all, my name on her lips as she came, it gave me a rush unlike anything else, to take a woman so strong and composed and make her shatter apart, then hold her while she came back down and piece her back together, to feel her soft and weak and trembling in the aftermath was a treasure without price, one I'd come to cherish, to love.

Now though, I worked my tongue back and forth through her folds, hearing her reaction, feeling her shudder as I lashed at her clit, before sliding back between her lips, stabbing my tongue deep inside her and getting a needy, greedy roll of her hips, Sharon was rapidly losing her ability to think as I worked her over, I'd spent months learning exactly what she'd liked and I knew she was drowning in a wave of erotic sensations.

Looking up, I could see her head was thrown back as she moaned, her chest heaving as she tried to deal with the electric responses running through her; a smile crossed my lips; to have her so vulnerable, so open, so desperate for me, was a massive turn-on, Sharon trusted me like no one else and I loved her for it.

Realising that I needed some attention as well, I slid my left hand down and around, slowly starting to tease my own clit in time with my tongue in her, building myself up as well, I didn't expect to get off like this, but it sure made me feel good and it drove me further into the moment, feeling a little of what I was giving Sharon

I finally took my right index and middle fingers and slowly dragged them forward along her folds, getting a low, wanton moan from her; Sharon knew exactly what was coming, as I curled my wrist and slid them slowly, gently inside her, feeling her molten heat surrounding, enclosing and welcoming them into her.

Slowly, remorselessly I slid them up inside, burying them to the knuckles, feeling her rise on her toes a little as I did, I could see her head turned to one side, teeth sunk into her lower lip, before I just as slowly pulled them almost all the way out, then back in, again and again, slow to start but gently picking up speed.

Unconsciously Sharon was pushing her hips back, exposing herself even more to me, making me smile as I heard her panting speed up in time with my thrusts. Realising I needed to push her even higher I pulled my hand back and out, before curling my thumb over my pinkie, twisting my hand, then sliding all three fingers inside her, hearing a loud shuddering gasp as she felt herself stretched wider. Finally embedding all three as far as they would go, I started twisting and turning my fingers, pistoning them in and out of her, her moans and gasps growing louder as I sped up,

Sharon was close, very close, moaning my name, pleading, curses, entreaties, begging, all the things she did when she was approaching the edge. Realising it was time to bring this to its end, I slid my fingers almost out, twisting them before ramming them in hard, feeling her body rise up on her toes as I did, her back arching, before I curled them forward, reaching for that one spot that would push her over the edge.

With the other hand I reached round and found her nub, toying with it mercilessly as I leaned forward, my tongue toying with her tight rear ring, setting the nerves there on fire, everything culminating in a sensory assault that she couldn't resist. Within seconds her voice was changing from a moan to a stuttering cry, my name on her lips as she suddenly stiffened, shudders running through her, growing stronger as she fell over the edge and slumped against the wall, little spasms running through her.

I slowly withdrew my fingers from inside her, feeling the shakes and tremors that caused her to clench at them, trying to hold them inside her. Finally sliding free I brought them to my lips, before having a better idea, standing and pressing against Sharon's back, reaching around and pressing my fingers against her lips.

"Open up sweetie" Sharon turned her head towards me and slowly opened her eyes, still trembling in rumbling little aftershocks of her climax, before seeing my fingers there in front of her. Without hesitation she took them into her mouth, one wet heat replacing another as she sucked and licked them clean as I watched her, feeling my pussy clench in heated need as I did.

Finally finishing cleaning my fingers, Sharon let them slide from her mouth, pushing back against me to get enough room to turn around before sliding both arms around my neck and leaning in for a kiss, it wasn't eager, it wasn't fevered like our earlier ones were, this one was soft and tender and full of her love. Finally, the water starting to get cold, we pulled apart, as I turned the water off and we stood there together, just holding each other.

"I love you Brenda" I nodded, just revelling in her presence, the reality that we were here; she was here with me, that we had survived and would live to fight and love another day. Sharon smiled softly at me. "Shall we move this into the bedroom or do you want me to return the favour right here?"

"I think that I might take a rain check sweetie, we're both tired and we're going to need some kind of sleep if we're going to function in the morning" Sharon looked at me a little sadly.

"You sure, you haven't come yet" I smiled, loving her concern for me, falling just that little bit more for her.

"It's fine sweetie, besides, this way I have something to look forward to tomorrow night" She smiled a little sadly then nodded.

"Ok then, tomorrow night it is. C'mon then, let's get to bed" We exited the shower and dried each other off with wonderfully fluffy soft white towels before heading back into the main suite, turning down those amazingly soft sheets and sliding between them, automatically movin together into the center of the wide, delightfully soft bed. We kissed for a while, slow and languid, before she smiled.

"Night Brenda, sleep well" I nodded.

"I will now" She picked up the unspoken words 'with you' and smiled a little wider, turning over and reaching out for the light switch, dropping the room into darkness, as I snuggled up behind her, spooning into her and wrapping my arm around her, pulling her back into me, our usual position for sleep. Nuzzling into her slightly damp hair I smiled to myself.

I had Sharon here in my arms, we were here, together; nothing else really mattered. Tomorrow was going to be a long and stressful day, but tonight I'd sleep well, for in Sharon I'd found my peace.


	73. Chapter 73

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**73 Adjustments**

Brenda's viewpoint

The ship, Aviva, returned us to Los Angeles just before 8.00 am. Sharon and I had been awakened from a repeatedly disturbed nights sleep by a persistent chime from the bedside phone, upon answering it a crew member had informed us it was 6.30 and breakfast would be served on the upper deck at 7.15. We'd scrambled out of bed and had a quick shower before getting dressed into yesterday's clothes; fresh clothes would be a priority.

We'd slept badly, exhaustion had caught up with us, but it hadn't been all that refreshing, at different times we'd both been awaken by nightmares. I'd woken to hear Sharon's voice in my ear, her arms around my shaking body as she drew me back to her from the hell I'd been lost in, seeing Sharon sprawled dead there on the filthy concrete in a spreading pool of blood. We'd snuggled together as my tears fell and my racing heartbeat slowed, her whispered words of comfort calming me until we'd fallen asleep once more, only to be awoken as Sharon whimpered and cried out, repeating 'no, no, no' over and over. It'd been easy to guess what she was seeing as I pulled her close and gently rocked her, whispering reassurance into her ear as she slowly woke, seeing the relief on her face in the cabin's dim light as she saw me there, alive and with her.

The cycle had been repeated throughout the night, we may have slept but we'd not rested, unfortunately we both had jobs to do, we'd push on through and hopefully get a better sleep tonight.

Making our way outside we joined the others, I could also see that our friends weren't any more rested than we were; all of us had probably had bad nights, even Natalie and Ana, though they hadn't been attacked, there was a good likelihood that something similar had been planned for them as well. The thought of losing each other would have been almost as disturbing to them as the reality was to us.

A white uniformed steward appeared and with a warm welcome and a wave of his arm he'd ushered us towards the upper deck where several tables had been laid out for breakfast, there was a vast selection of fresh fruit, cereals, muesli's and yogurts, half a dozen different styles of bread available for toasting toast and even more assorted pastries including Danishes, croissants, bagels, brioche and muffins, plus a selection of hot food, all in individual chafing dishes.

Running my eyes over the little cards in front of them there were eggs available in several different styles, little chipolata sausages wrapped in bacon in a hollandaise sauce, Eggs Benedict on English muffins, spinach and ricotta egg cake with smoked salmon, grilled Portobello mushrooms and roasted vine tomatoes, several different types of bacon, hollowed grilled tomatoes stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese and to top it off buttermilk pancakes with berries, double cream and pure maple syrup, plus any hot beverage we might possibly want.

Jane just grinned and headed for the bacon-wrapped chipolatas, I'd long ago learned she loved anything with bacon, Maura had joked she could get Jane to eat anything if she could somehow include bacon in the recipe. I looked at the steward who had led us up here and smiled in gratitude as Natalie shook her head and spoke to him.

"Wow, so much wonderful food, it all looks so good but I'm not sure I have room for all this" The steward seemed surprised and apologetic.

"Please miss, on behalf of the captain the chef and crew of Aviva I'd like to apologise; normally we'd have a much more appropriate breakfast, but this was all we could put together at short notice, given we didn't have much warning you would be joining us" I heard a well-camouflaged choking sound, glancing round to see Sharon catching herself before coughing into her fist delicately as Maura spoke up.

"I believe that I speak for all of us when I say that if this is what you consider a less than appropriate breakfast, I look forward, with anticipation, and not a little trepidation, to what you and your team consider suitably appropriate" He smiled happily.

"Oh miss, Aviva is justly renowned for the quality of our cuisine. I'll pass on your comments to the chef, I'm sure she will appreciate them, but I can assure you that we will have a much more lavish breakfast tomorrow" I saw Ana look up from where she was adding honey and yogurt to her muesli and shake her head as Sharon leaned in and whispered to me.

"If this is their idea of barely adequate I don't think my waistline could survive a 'lavish' breakfast" I smiled and looked back at her, keeping my voice low.

"Me neither sweetie"

The food turned out to be as delicious as it looked and smelled, the sun was rising and the day promised to be warm and clear, though the gentle breeze of the ship's passage kept the morning air crisp as we watched the sun come up behind the skyline of Los Angeles. This could have been a wonderful, carefree experience, but instead we were here with armed protectors watching over us. Well they were watching over us until Natalie decided that she'd feel a lot better if they joined us for breakfast. It took a little persuasion but she was nothing if not persuasive and persistent, arguing that we were safe out here at sea and we'd be able to see any threat long before it reached us, plus we needed help to get through all the food we'd been provided, they'd eventually given in and sat down with us where they'd turned out to be pleasant company.

The three Talisman people were Pierre who'd been in French Foreign Legion, Ben who'd formerly been a member of the Australian Special Air Service and Cory, a former Green Beret; they were all smart, charming, extremely fit men who took their jobs very seriously. For the next 30 minutes we were able to forget that there were people out there who were trying to kill us, instead just enjoying the occasion with Maura and Pierre happily chatting in French as Jane looked on with an amused eye, while Sharon, Cory and Ana were discussing his training and some of the jobs he'd undertaken since joining Talisman. Natalie had established a rapport with Ben, who was your typical laid back Aussie, or at least as much as he let himself be on the job, keeping us both amused with a stream of deadpan anecdotes.

All good things come to an end however and as the harbour hove into sight all three of our protectors slipped back into their professional guises, talking up places around the ship and talking to the Talisman people waiting on the dock for our arrival via radio. We got the all clear and tied up alongside to be met by a dozen fit, serious men and women in tailored suits. The senior man introduced himself as Dennis Hennessey, before turning and introducing each of his people, we'd have two people assigned each of to us through the day, with our three current guardians, Pierre, Ben and Cory sailing with us each night.

With introductions done we mentioned that we'd need changes of clothes, at which he'd smiled and waved at one of the three women in the group.

"It's all been taken care of Chief Johnson. Please meet Claudia, formerly of the US Secret Service" The woman in question was late thirties or early forties, pretty with blonde hair pinned up in a knot, professionally dressed in a well-tailored pants suit that emphasised her lean, runners build. "Claudia, when she's not on the job, has something of a reputation as a fashionista. She always dresses well, something which helped her blend in at functions in her old job with the Secret Service and now with us, it also made her perfect for helping out with this"

Claudia stepped forward and shook my hand with a smile, her grip was firm but not crushing, someone aware of her own strength and confident enough to not have to play those games while her accent was pure Texan twang, at odds with the polished image.

"Good morning Chief Johnson, ladies. Please excuse the intrusion but we knew that you'd need fresh clothes so I took the liberty of raiding your places early this morning. I have a bag packed for each of you with several days' changes of clothes, plus cosmetics, shampoos and such, if I missed anything important please let me know and I can arrange to have it picked up" I smiled, seeing smiles appear on everyone's faces at the thought of clean clothes, especially Maura, Sharon and Natalie, understandable given each was very particular about the image they projected through their grooming and clothes.

"Why thank you Claudia, I'm very grateful as I'm certain are my colleagues" I was beginning to see why Talisman could charge so much, their service was everything you could have asked for. Talisman's senior person, Dennis Hennesy; an Englishman with an accent that spoke of Oxford or Cambridge, would be assigned to run overall security for us all and would also be on my daytime security detail, together with a fit younger man, Colin Lee. Claudia meanwhile had turned to Jane and Maura.

"I made sure to feed your dog and tortoise, Bass I believe his name is?" Maura nodded as her face lit up at word of her beloved pets.

"Did you have any trouble with them?" Claudia shook her head.

"Your instructions were very specific and easy to follow, though I don't think Bass was too sure about a stranger feeding him" Maura frowned slightly.

"He did eat though?" Claudia smiled reassuringly.

"Eventually, I think he got used to me, particularly after he saw your dog on her back getting her belly rubbed" At Claudia's comment Jane rolled her eyes.

"That'd be Jo, she's got no loyalty at all, give her a pat and some food and she's anyone's" She smiled. "Careful or you might find her following you home one day" Claudia's smile widened.

"I don't think Wolfie would mind" At the unasked question she smiled. "Our Shepherd, she'd take one look at Jo and think 'appetizer', so maybe not a good idea" Maura nodded, smiling happily as I noted Claudia had already managed to put Maura at ease, as her reply showed.

"Perhaps not then, we would rather have Jo remain uneaten"

With time wasting we scattered into a convoy of dark SUVs and made our way into the Parker Centre, having to sign our protectors in, to find most of the Major Crimes and FID people were already at work. I watched Maura, Natalie, Sharon and Ana separate, heading off to their respective floors with their guardians in tow, I expected there was going to be some interesting discussions with their co-workers about their new shadows. It'd already required both Sharon's and my influence to bend LAPD rules sufficiently to have armed, non-Law Enforcement personnel allowed to run around within the building and I could just tell Pope was going to throw a hissy fit about it when he returned from that New Orleans conference. Mind you that was the whole basis for this rigmarole, so we'd all still be alive for Pope to flap his jowls at when he did get back, something I now considered much more likely thanks to our welcome protectors.

As expected, our OIS was going to be signed off once the last of the paperwork was done; given all that was going on I was looking forward to getting my Glock back. Sharon's injured shooter was still in hospital, recovering from surgery, as was the surviving shooter from Maura's attempted ambush; we'd try and get something more out of them once they were cleared to talk. In the meantime however Mike Tao had been going through surveillance footage and called me over almost as soon as we got in.

"We combed through the surveillance footage from surrounding streets and spotted this SUV sitting near the car park, it took off after your shoot out, I suppose they didn't want to hang around with all those angry cops in the area" I nodded. The silver-grey SUV was parked a few hundred yards up from the LAPD car park exit. I leaned in to take in the image on the screen, then looked to him and spoke.

"Waiting for someone, possibly Natalie and Anastasia?" He nodded, his voice quietly confident.

"Makes sense, one for Jane and the Doc, they didn't know that Jane was working back. Another for you and the Commander and this one for them" I leaned in, but the image was too pixelated for a plate number.

"No chance of cleaning that up?" Mike shook his head.

"That is cleaned up; the original image was pretty murky. Sorry Chief" I stood back up and patted him on the shoulder.

"No not at all. Thank you Lieutenant, it looks as if someone wanted us all killed at roughly the same time" He nodded once more, the tiredness easily detected in his voice.

"Looks like it, hit everyone at the same time and there no chance to get a warning out to everyone else" I chewed my lip in thought for a moment then asked a question I'd been bothered by.

"I wonder why they didn't try for Doctor Isles with a drive by" Michael shrugged then cued up some video footage, tapping the screen as it played out there.

"She happened to leave at the same time as half a dozen officers…" I nodded in understanding as I watched the cluster of officers moving with and partially obscuring Maura as they made their way towards the parking garage. "They probably thought it was way too risky" I bit the inside of my cheek as I considered his words for a moment then spoke.

"So they went after her on the way home" He nodded slowly as he spoke.

"Fortunately Maura spotted them" I nodded in response, it was indeed fortunate, then looked closely at him, Michael looked very tired, fatigue carving deep lines on his face.

"What time did you get in this morning Lieutenant?" He looked sheepish and said nothing. I took in the rumpled clothing and surmised he hadn't been home since the shooting. "Wrap this up and go home Lieutenant, I appreciate your work but I need you fresh, not tired, ok"

"I'm ok Chief, really" I just looked at him over my glasses as he started to fidget so I brought out the heavy artillery as I dropped my voice so only the two of us could hear.

"Michael, do I have to ring Cathy?" He was silent for a moment then shook his head.

"No Chief, I'll head out soon" I nodded once as I stood back and smiled down at him.

"That you will Lieutenant, I want you out of here by ten and don't come back here until tomorrow, you hear" He went to say something, but at my look wisely said nothing, just nodding. I looked around the room, taking in everyone there, seeing the tiredness visible on everyone's faces; I gathered they'd all pulled an all-nighter on the case. For a moment I felt terrible, I'd slept between soft sheets while they'd worked through the night. "Can I have everyone's attention please?" I waited until everyone was looking at me. "Everyone here who worked last night, I want you to wrap up any loose ends best you can in the next hour, give me a brief on where you all are at and all then head home, get all the sleep you need and I'll see you bright and early tomorrow" As expected I got an argument from everyone but I stood firm, eventually even Gabriel and Sanchez reluctantly gave in and headed home, leaving the room quiet, just Jane and I. Well just the two of us and our four discreet guardians.

In addition to Dennis and Chris, Jane's protectors Danny and Ramon were also keeping watch; as I glanced around I could see them standing round the walls of the room, looking casual but they were positioned in such a way that every entrance to the area was under surveillance. I'd had military guards before, back when the Agency had deployed me to Saudi Arabia before the first Gulf War. Those had been US Army Special Forces and I'd felt quite safe, I didn't doubt the people with us now were as good as they'd been, probably even better given it was their primary role. In the end Jane and I found ourselves sitting in front of the murder board, making notes and trying to find connections, finally we sat back looking at it as our protectors gave us some quiet space to work.

"Someone, well, we both can guess who, contracted with these gangers, Los Lobos del Muerte apparently, to come after us" I glanced at Jane. "What do we have on them?" She picked up a folder and leafed through it as I recognised Andy Flynn's writing on the pages within.

"Hispanic gang outta Boyle Heights, apparently they've been on the Gang Task Force's radar for a spate of drive-by shootings in recent months" She flipped pages before continuing. "Flynn met with the Task Force last night, they've got feelers out chasing down the gang's leadership, but it's a little difficult to know who to look for" At my raised eyebrow she shrugged. "You took out the gang's leader, the second in charge died shooting it out with the West LA cops last night and the only other known senior guy's fallen off the grid" I frowned.

That is remarkably unhelpful" Jane dropped the folder on the desk and glanced at me as she spoke.

"Figure the remaining senior guy's the one who was with the people who were going to go after Nat and Ana, when everything turned to shit he bolted, dived into the deepest darkest hole he could find and is gonna hide out in there until this all blows over" I felt my lips quirk in annoyance.

"We need to find them" Jane nodded and picked up another folder.

"I'm sure they will Chief, Captain Collin's people in Tactical Response are conducting a series of raids on the Wolves known hang-outs this morning, hopefully they'll turn over someone useful" I let my mouth twist in a little moue of annoyance, then spoke.

"Perhaps we need to have a talk to the gang members we did capture. They may have something?" Jane shrugged and smiled crookedly.

"Maybe, but the one Sharon shot is still in ICU after surgery, he's gonna be learning how to get by minus a chunk of his stomach and one of his kidney's, once he wakes up that is" We shared a look before she continued on. "The other wounded one, over in West LA, he took two bullets, one to the head, so he won't be talking until he wakes up, if he wakes up at all" At my look she tilted her head to regard me. "Doctors told Sanchez he's in an induced coma while they wait to see how much brain function's left" I ground my teeth in frustration.

"That's…unfortunate" Jane nodded agreeably.

"Yep, you and Sharon were a little too accurate and the West LA cops weren't taking any chances when the gangers decided to shoot it out" I nodded and sighed, Jane was correct and after all there was no use complaining about spilled milk as my great aunt Lucille used to say, before I continued on.

"I don't suppose it matters, I'm sure we both know who was responsible for them coming after us" Jane looked my way and shrugged as she spoke.

"Yeah, in my experience offer a gang enough cash or drugs and there's not much they won't do" I turned to face her.

"Figure that Kennedy or Powell don't realise that we know they sent the cartel assassins after us" Jane sat watching me as I continued. "They must have found out soon enough though that somehow we caught them, but don't realise we can trace them back to them" She nodded.

"Makes sense, they know the cartel's killers haven't had direct contact with any of them, so they feel they're safe" I glanced back at the murder board, crossing my arms as I did, speaking my thoughts out.

"They know we've been investigating them, so they look for a Plan B" Jane rested her hands on the table edge and leaned back, staring at the board in front of us as we bounced ideas back and forward.

"They offer money to a bunch of gangers to come after us, while they make sure they all have ironclad alibi's for the time of the shooting" I nodded, her supposition made sense, at that thought I turned my head to look at her.

"Any idea what their alibi was last night?" She shrugged and turned, sorting through folder on the desk and before pulling one out and flipping through it, finding the page she wanted.

"According to Provenza many of the Robbery / Homicide squad, including Taylor and all our suspects, was out at a bowling alley, a disco bowling night would you believe, at the time of the attacks." She dropped the folder onto the table with a disgusted look. "I bet if we dig down we'll find it was suggested by one of our suspects"

"Almost certainly" I sat there for a moment, thinking it through then pushed on. "They must know that it didn't work, if not by now, soon enough" Jane nodded, looking at me from the corner of her eye, before dropping her voice.

"How are you and Sharon doing?" I nodded slowly, unsurprised by her concern, Jane had made it clear ages ago that we were her friends, which came with the unspoken knowledge that she extended her sense of protectiveness around us as well.

"As well as could be expected I s'pose, all things considered" She nodded but remained quietly, obviously waiting for me to go on. "Sharon's a bit shook up, she's not had to shoot someone in ages, let alone be involved in a fatal" I shrugged. "Not my first rodeo, so it's easier on me than her" I looked over at her. "How are you and Maura holding up?" Jane stared off into the distance for a while; I noticed she was toying with the scars on her palms, something I'd noticed she did when stressed, before she finally spoke, low and soft.

"It was hard, god was it hard. To know Maura was in danger and not able to do a damned thing about it. We had a long talk about it last night, she was surprisingly calm about everything" She looked up to look me in the eye. "She trusts me to keep her safe" Jane barked out a soft and bitter laugh. "I'm supposed to protect her and I wasn't even there when she needed me" I didn't say anything; there wasn't much to say, I just nodded my head slowly, letting her know I understood. Staring at the board, Jane tilted her head, regarding it then spoke. "Wonder what their next move will be?" She looked round the room at our protectors. "Figure word's going to get round soon enough, given we have our own set of bodyguards" I nodded thoughtfully, thinking it through, before I could say anything though my phone rang, it was Sharon, her voice calm, though there was a undertone of tension there that raised the hackles on the back of my neck, making me sit up straighter.

"Can you please come up to SIS right away, they have something you need to hear" I unconsciously nodded and told her I'd be right up. Two minutes later, Dennis, Chris and I exited the elevator and made our way into SIS, finding Sharon, with her protectors Julia Childs and Klaus Hauser, waiting in the SIS media room with Commander Ruiz. To his credit, he didn't turn a hair at having his place full of armed strangers, instead directing our attention to a recording that they'd just found in reviewing the tapes of phone conversations involving our suspects.

"This call was made to Kennedy's phone late yesterday morning" I narrowed my eyes at the timing, why were we only getting to hear about it now... Ruiz must have realised what I was thinking, or perhaps Sharon had already tackled him about it as he held up his hands, palms outwards in an 'I surrender' gesture. "We were short of people to work on this who could keep their mouths shut, I wanted to keep your investigation and this whole mess under wraps, upshot is that it didn't get prioritised and we didn't get around to reviewing it until this morning" He grimaced as he continued. "That's our fault and I'm sorry, it won't happen again, my word on that"

I flicked a glance over, seeing Sharon remaining quietly impassive, I guessed she'd already ripped him a new one in that terrifyingly cold way she has when she's really pissed, that being likely I decided to let it go, after all we needed his cooperation in this, so me not also chewing on him for what was an honest mistake was a good start, after all few people ever forgot one if Sharon's ice-cold tongue lashings so I just nodded, conveying my understanding. He nodded in response to what wasn't being said and motioned to one of his people who started the recording, an accented voice was heard, one I recognised; the cartel man, Hernandez.

"_I have just been informed that our people were captured_" There was silence for a second then Kennedy's voice came though, an edge of panic in it.

"_Oh shit, how in the hell did that happen?_" Hernandez' barely accented voice came through clearly.

"I am _not exactly sure, their lawyer contacted me an hour ago_" I ground my teeth in frustration, god damn that arrogant bastard Holcroft. "_They were apparently arrested at one of the women's homes, Raydor's I believe_" The panic in Kennedy's voice was a joy to hear.

"_Fuck! Do we know what happened?_" Hernandez voice was dispassionate as he answered.

"_No, not yet, what I do know is that apparently there was a shootout and both men were captured_" Kennedy's voice was slowly returning to normal.

"_Okay, okay, what if they talk?_" Hernandez' voice was confident.

"_They know better than to say anything, if they say nothing they can only be charged with burglary and weapons possession and possibly kidnapping, as they have no record here in the United States they may well get off lightly. Therefore I have already advised their lawyer to proceed on that basis_" Kennedy was unconvinced.

"_You're sure they won't talk?_" The confidence was still there in Hernandez' answer.

"_Of course they won't, they know better than that, besides, they know very little and have no connection whatsoever to you_" Kennedy thought it over then spoke, his voice tentative.

"_So what happens now?_" Hernandez voice was still calm.

"_I am not sure, I will need to consult with my superiors, once I have I will be back in touch_" There was a touch of uncertainty in Kennedy's voice.

"_Are you still in town? In case we need to meet I mean_" There was an air of questioning in Kennedy's voice but the cartel man was firm.

"_No, I am in San Diego taking care of other business. I am heading back home shortly. I doubt we will meet again in person until this situation is resolved_" Kennedy was obviously unconvinced, his voice came out querulous.

"_And how exactly do you propose we resolve this?_"

"_That is what I am heading south for; I will be in touch in due course once we have a solution_" Kennedy didn't have much to add to that so when he replied there was resignation in his voice.

"_I'll wait for your call then_" Hernandez was blithely reassuring.

"_I will be in contact soon_"

"_Thanks_"

"_You are welcome_" With that the call ended. I exchanged a glance with Sharon before looking at Ruiz.

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention" I didn't add the 'too late' that I really, really wanted to, but in this case better to let it slide, we did need the man's help after all. "Please keep them under surveillance, well as much as you can with the warrants we have at the moment" Ruiz nodded as I kept going. "if anything out of the ordinary happens, no matter how trivial, please call us"

"We will, this won't happen again" Sharon and I both nodded in acknowledgement, understanding the embarrassment and shame Jose must be feeling, it was his people who messed up, before Sharon spoke.

"Given they now know that we have the cartel assassins in custody and that we survived last night's attacks, they must be getting desperate" Ruiz nodded quickly as she kept going. "Desperate people do desperate things, and make mistakes, so they may do something stupid" I looked back at Ruiz and voiced a question I'd just thought of.

"Did you get anything from any of the others?" Ruiz shook his head.

"No, nothing that we picked up, though all of the suspects were out of the office at some point yesterday, so they could have done anything and we could have missed it" He paused then pushed on. "Besides it's not that hard to get your hands on a burner phone" Sharon and I exchanged a glance and a small nod, he wasn't wrong. Sharon looked back at him.

"Please keep us informed if anything else untoward occurs" Riz nodded.

"Got it, anything at all interesting, you'll get the call" I smiled in acknowledgement.

"Thank you Commander" Sharon pursed her lips for a moment, then addressed him.

"We may have to move at short notice if something does happen, in particular if one of them attempts to bolt" She frowned for a moment. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that however we may need your people to help in executing search warrants on their premises on short notice" I nodded, with at least six suspects we'd need more than Major Crimes and FID's resources to get the job done. Jose looked from her to me and back again before speaking, certainty in his voice.

"When you need us, we'll be there" There wasn't much else to be said before we took our leave. Waiting at the elevators we stood close for a moment, surrounded by our protectors, watched by curious officers and LAPD staff, this wasn't the place for anything overt, so we just stood side by side, our hands finding each others, fingers entwining in a desperately-needed moment of closeness before her elevator arrived to carry her to her floor. With a whispered 'later' she was gone, even as I missed her terribly. Before I could follow after her, a soft 'ding' announced my own ride, carrying me down to my floor, I grimaced and entered, I had work to do.

Twenty minutes later Jane and I were back in front of the murder board, both sipping dreadful coffee from the break room as I thought out loud.

"I think we need to get more information" She looked at me out of the corner of her eye as I smiled and pressed on. "I'd like you to visit the two gangers in hospital, see if either of them will say anything" Jane nodded and levered herself up off the table before I stopped her with a gesture and clarified my directive "Take Ana with you Jane, the two of you might have better luck" She nodded and turned to walk over to her desk, then turned back, a question in her eyes and on her lips.

"What are you planning to do while I'm out?" I smiled; apparently it wasn't that reassuring as Jane got a wary look as I spoke.

"Why I think Detective Sergeant Kennedy and I need to have a chat" Before she could speak we were interrupted.

"That may have to wait Chief" I looked up at Ana's voice to see her breezing in, her shadows Colin Firth and Tom Hafey following close before peeling off to take positions around the room. As she walked up to us I could see the six men exchanging looks and nods before two of them headed off, probably either getting a coffee or hitting the toilet. "We've had some good luck for a change" I nodded, eager to hear some good news right about now.

"Well please don't keep us in suspense Agent Romanov"

"I just got off the phone from Customs and Border Protection down in San Diego, they picked up Hernandez at the San Ysidro border crossing heading south" We exchanged satisfied smiles all round, we'd sent images of him from the SIS video to Border Control, not expecting much, it looked like we'd finally got a lucky break, if so it was well overdue.

"Excellent work, how soon can they ship him up here?" She made a 'so-so' rocking gesture with her hand.

"We should have him up here tomorrow morning" I nodded; I wanted to see him across my interrogation table as soon as possible.

"I might hold off on talking to Sergeant Kennedy for the moment then" They shared a glance and nodded before Jane spoke.

"Still want us to rattle the ganger's cage?" I paused for a moment, before coming to the conclusion that it couldn't hurt.

"Yes please. In the meantime I'm going to prepare for a discussion with our friendly neighborhood cartel representative tomorrow. The assassins haven't been all that helpful so far; perhaps Mister Hernandez might be more forthcoming than his fellow Cartel members"


	74. Chapter 74

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**74 Financial Pressures**

Jane's viewpoint

Andrea Hobbs had been as good as her word, she'd come through with the warrant we needed after convincing a judge to let us crack open our suspect's financials plus conduct electronic surveillance on their computers, home and cell phones; hopefully it'd be enough to tie them all up in a single gift-wrapped package and hand them over to the courts.

The 'take' as Brenda had called it, apparently a reference from her days at the CIA, from six suspects was pretty overwhelming so we'd gathered all the financial data into one place, the Major Crimes conference room, and we'd gathered around the table as we worked through the paperwork, all of us given Maura and Natalie had joined us. Not that we minded, in addition to both being smart, detail-oriented people, perfect for what we were doing, having them here made them as safe as we could get them. To get to them anyone would have to get past the Major Crimes team outside, then the Talisman people and finally Ana and I, plus as they'd recently proved, both Brenda or Sharon were more than capable of handling themselves if push came to shove.

We'd also been joined by Andrea, she was helping go through some of the offshore banking stuff, back before becoming our go-to ADA she'd been a prosecutor specialising in financial and white collar crime, meaning she knew what to look for. Of course her presence meant that her partner Mendoza was a regular visitor too, just 'dropping in' every few hours, not that I could really be all that irritated, god knows you couldn't keep me away if the situation was reversed and it was Maura in Andrea's place. Brenda and Andrea had both assured us that Mendoza would keep her mouth shut so that was good enough for me.

We'd been at it for a while, we'd split it up so each of us was working our way through a single suspects 'take', once we were done we'd switch files with someone else and give it another go-over in case anything had been missed, fresh eyes and all that. Right now I was going over Julia Humphries' finances and was making hard going, slogging my way through this sort of financial stuff wasn't really my thing but there was no one else we'd trust so it was up to us. I was reviewing the notes I'd made on her mortgage when I was interrupted by Brenda, calling us to sum up what we'd learned. She was the first to get started.

"I've found nothing on Detective Sergeant Kennedy so far. Quite obviously he's in it up to his neck, quite possibly even the ringleader, well him or Powell, but there's no sign of the money anywhere. His condo's paid off, years ago actually, no sign of any unusual or regular payment's anywhere, he seems to live within his means, there's nothing here to suggest anything untoward" Natalie frowned.

"But we know he's dirty?" Ana nodded once before interjecting.

"Oh definitely" Brenda nodded in agreement as she looked back at Natalie, adding her certainty to Ana's.

"We just have to find it" We were silent for a few seconds before I spoke.

"He could just be stashing the cash I suppose" Sharon shook her head slowly once then leaned forward and spoke.

"That doesn't feel right to me. Kennedy seems to have put this all together, him and Powell, which suggests he's planned what he's doing. I doubt he'd be involved in whatever he's doing without also having contingencies in place for how he's going to get out of it as well. That money is probably sitting somewhere offshore, all the money's being deposited as cash, as little electronic trail as possible. It's there but it'll take some digging to get it" Andrea grimaced before speaking.

"You're probably right, it's not easy to do that sort of thing without leaving a trail but there are ways to get around the reporting requirements, particularly if the individual amounts each time are relatively small" Natalie nodded at Andrea's words then looked round the room before addressing her words to Sharon and Andrea, who were sitting side by side.

"If he's been that careful, we may not find it, I mean it's not really our area of expertise. We may have to get someone in from the Accounting, Financial and Computer Fraud squad, they do this sort of thing all the time" I frowned a little at letting more people in, something that obviously also bothered Brenda, given her reply.

"I'd like to keep it just between us for as long as possible, less chance of it leaking that way" Natalie nodded.

"I understand, you may want to keep them in mind though, one of their people, Detective Kahn, is apparently going to get a commendation from the FBI for a joint investigation he was part of" Ana looked to her right to where Nat was sitting next to her and smiled widely.

"Oh cool, I put the paperwork in for that after hearing how much help he was, Deputy Director Ryan of the Cyber Crime division was really happy with his work, I'm glad to see it came through" Nat smiled at Ana, one just between them, before she looked back to where Brenda was sitting on Sharon's other side.

"Apparently he was good enough that the Bureau was rumored to be looking at offering him a job, but I'm told he didn't want to relocate to Washington" She shrugged. "We may want to get him and the other people in the division involved, perhaps after we arrest them" Brenda nodded and spoke placatingly.

"I agree we'll need help unraveling this once we have all the suspects in custody and I'd be more than happy to hand over that task to the experts, but right now I'd rather keep it to the people in this room; less chance of leaks that way" There were nods all round before she drew us back to the original discussion.

"Kennedy seems to all intents and purposes to be clean but I don't think any of us believe that for one second" There was a murmur of assent around the table before Brenda pushed on. "While he and his apparent girlfriend, a Tanya Riley, seem clean, I think we need to keep digging, in the meantime all we can hope for is that the SIS taps on his phone computer and desk turn up something more" I nodded, the SIS surveillance had given us advance notice, enough so that we had the two cartel assassins in custody and we'd eventually break them. Brenda looked round the room and asked the question. "Who wants to go next?" Ana looked up and spoke.

"I'll will" She looked down at her notes, then back up. "Powell's financials are interesting, he's paid off his mortgage, did that a few years back. Now he seems to be running everything through his credit cards, things like groceries, nights out for dinner and movies, gas and take out, everything he can but he pays it off, all of it, at the end of the month" She glanced down at the papers on the table in front of her. "The thing is though he runs up thousands each month, but according to these..." She tapped the printout in front if her. "...he's not really touching his salary, most of that he's investing it seems"

"Seems…" It was Brenda. "…in what way exactly?"

"There's money being regularly transferred in bulk lots into the account of a broking firm downtown, Winslow and Sons Financial Services" I frowned, how was that working out, so I asked.

"How's he paying the credit card off?" Ana glanced my way and shrugged as she spoke.

"Dunno, no transfers from either his or his wife's accounts or from Winslow's, if I had to guess, I'd say he's walking in to a branch and paying it off with cash" Natalie shook her head, surprise in her voice

"Who does that in this day and age?" Andrea looked over from where she had her own mass of papers spread out in front of her, glancing over the top of her reading glasses at Nat and spoke up.

"People who want to fly under the radar" She turned to look at Ana. "What's his credit card point balance?" Ana flipped pages and read something then looked up and answered Andrea's query.

"Pretty low, he seems to be burning through them almost as fast as he gets them. Shopping vouchers, home appliances, a new Dyson vacuum, a top of the line Nespresso coffee maker, a set of high-end Bose headphones, lots of things like that" Sharon looked to her left and nodded at the lawyer.

"It looks to me like he's laundering the money through his credit card, they live off the card all month and rack up the points, then he pays it all off with cash at the end of the month and buy toys with the points, meanwhile he's investing his salary into the market" Andrea nodded agreeably at Sharon's theory and spoke up.

"I bet he's invested in stocks listed on foreign stock exchanges, places like Shanghai and Tokyo and Singapore, well away from U.S. jurisdiction. If he ever has to disappear, he can cash the shares in wherever he's hiding, probably somewhere without an extradition treaty, making it harder to recover him or the money" Natalie nodded in thought then spoke.

"Interesting, if you're right he's given this some serious thought" Maura sat back, the movement catching my eye, I could see the expression on her face, the one that meant she was choosing her words carefully as she thought it through before speaking up.

"If Detective Powell, together with Sergeant Kennedy, were responsible for the earliest murders of the Witness Protection program participants here in Los Angeles; Jose Rodriguez and Hector Garcia, that suggests that they have had almost two years to cover their tracks, including the financial aspects of their deplorable activities" I had to work hard to cover my grin, trust Maura to come up with something like 'deplorable activities' to describe a string of cold-blooded murders, even as she continued. "Perhaps we should, while not neglecting these two officers, instead turn our attention to their co-conspirators who may not have had as much time to quite so easily cover their financial trail" Brenda and Sharon exchanged a glance and a nod before Brenda spoke.

"That's worth a look, let's see what we've found on the others" She looked my way. "What about you Jane, did you find anything?" I shook my head as I pulled my notebook over and quickly scanned my notes before starting.

"I can't find much on Humphries, she's paying her apartment off quicker than she has to, well ahead on payments in fact, but it looks like most of her salary's going into her mortgage. Apart from that there's nothing much showing up, she owns a three year old Miata that's paid off, the activity on her credit card's all incidental things, she pays them off almost immediately" Andrea pursed her lips in thought then spoke up.

'Paying for her lifestyle with cash maybe?" I shrugged, there was nothing here either way. Brenda looked past Sharon to Andrea.

"Well the rumors are she likes to run with a rich crowd and party hard, cash would let her do that" Andrea nodded slowly, then spoke.

"And lots of other things on the side" Sharon looked over at me, her voice soft.

"What about unusual purchases? Anything stand out?"

"No, she seems to spend her salary on shoes and dresses, maybe eight hundred to a thousand or so a month" That sounded like a lot to me, but none of the others seemed that impressed. There was quiet around the table before Ana spoke.

"I wonder how we go about tracking down her lifestyle costs, if it's all cash it's gonna be hard to pin anything down" Brenda shrugged.

"Maybe surveillance in whatever clubs she frequents" She looked round at us and smiled. "Let's deal with only one problem at a time" She glanced back at me and continued. "Anything else Jane?"

"Nope, like I said it seems it's mostly cash and off the grid" There were nods all round before Brenda looked over at Natalie.

"What about you Natalie, have you found anything?" Nat looked down at the papers in front of her and pulled a sheet covered in notes out and ran her eyes over it before reporting what she'd found.

"Di Marco's major outgoings are their mortgage, his wife's trips, she's had a few cosmetic procedures as Maura suggested plus he recently registered a Harley, about eight months ago" I looked over to where she was sitting next to Ana and asked.

"What sort?" At her raised eyebrow I clarified. "The bike I mean?" She smiled at me and referred to her notes before clarifying.

"A Soft Tail 2014 model" I frowned unhappily; it figured.

"The son of a bitch has taste, I'll give him that if nothing else" At my comment Brenda looked my way, her eyes widening a little, reflecting the surprise in her voice.

"I didn't know you were into bikes Jane?" I shrugged a little, embarrassed at the suggestion, I'd never really been a bike person, didn't really know how to ride one.

"Liv in New York is, we walked past a dealership one day back before we moved out here, a Harley place in New York, Liv just had to go in and I swear she was like a kid in a candy store. Apparently she used to ride and still loves Harley's, that model was one she pointed out to me, it looked pretty nice" I glanced around the table. "One of them retails for over sixteen thousand new with all the options" Brenda nodded and looked down to her notes.

"So he has expensive taste in wives and bikes, no crime there, not unless we can track the money" Natalie nodded and spoke.

"Can't see much showing up, they have a mortgage that's about half paid off, looks like they're making the minimum payments on it, the rest is lifestyle" Andrea frowned then spoke.

"Supporting the lifestyle with their salary's or with something more?" Nat shook her head.

"No way they could afford a new Harley and her trips plus the cosmetic surgery on his salary alone, she barely makes anything as a teacher's aide" She flipped some pages. "No sign of a loan on that Harley, he must have paid cash. I also see that they paid off the wife's car earlier this year, way early. It's one of those BMW baby SUVs" Brenda pulled a face as she thought it through, then looked up.

"Well there's a start, we need to chase that down" She looked across at me. "Look up where the Harley was bought from and look into it please Jane, same with the BMW too" I nodded and made a note, no rest for any of us as Brenda turned to Maura and asked for her summation.

"Did you find anything Maura?" Maura shook her head once then spoke, her voice crisp and certain.

"I have been unable to find any sign of unusual expenditure whatsoever on Detective Osmond's part, he apparently lives well within his means, rents an apartment in Del Ray that is appropriate for his salary range, owns a ten year-old SUV and lives within the relatively modest constraints of his detective's salary, particularly compared to many of his co-conspirators" She glanced down at her notes then continued. "Detective Osmond has a savings account and a checking account, neither of which has revealed any specific financial transactions out of line with his financial circumstances" She sat back and waved at the printouts laid out in front of her. "He is notable only for being so unremarkable" There were smiles round the table at her quip before Sharon spoke.

"What about his wife?" Maura brushed her hair back away from her face and continued.

"Nothing of any consequence there either. She is a stay at home housewife, they have two children, a boy aged three and a girl aged five" She frowned. "I note from pharmacy receipts that Detective Osmond's wife, Janine, suffers from Type 1 diabetes. That is not normally an issue if properly controlled, however their son Matthew suffers from a genetic disorder, Spina Bifida" Maura glanced round the table. "In the interests of brevity I will just explain that Spina bifida is the incomplete formation of the spine and spinal cord which occurs during the first month of a baby's development in the womb" She sat back and laced her fingers together on the table in front of her as she explained why this was important. "There is an established causal relationship between a pregnant mother's poorly-controlled diabetes and the risks of Spina Bifeda in the fetus" There were widened eyes all around the table as Maura nodded at a separate small pile of receipts "I note that there are significant ongoing medical bills regarding his treatment and care" There were nods and frowns around the table before Andrea spoke, her voice hesitant.

"Not much but if they are struggling..." I nodded at that as Brenda spoke.

"It's not much I agree, but again we need to look into it" She smiled at Maura. "Anything else stand out" Maura smiled in return.

"Nothing particularly notable, they rent an apartment, both seem active within their local community, Mrs Osmond volunteers at their local school canteen, Detective Osmond swims and Janine Osmond plays tennis within her local church group. In fact both appear to be very active with their local evangelical church, I note several invoices for participation in spiritual retreats run by their church" Brenda pursed her lips at that, even as I considered the contradictions between church-going family man on one hand and potential murderer on the other before I mentally shrugged, some of the old Irish mob killers were supposed to be like that, killing all week and confessing all on Sunday, safe in the knowledge that the priests would keep their mouths shut, or else. It was a weird world. With Maura indicating she had finished Sharon was getting started.

"I've been looking into Farrar, there's a trail here, but not much of one. Near as I can tell, he's running his life from within his budget mostly. He has made a few purchases though, things like taps and a sink and a shower system and stuff, the sort of thing you'd need for a home renovation but there's no sign of the renovation being paid for. There is however a credit card payment for an electrical safety check on the wiring in a new kitchen and bathroom" I looked up as Sharon continued. "Nothing in his accounts to support the actual renovation" Brenda nodded as she and Sharon exchanged a quick conversation without words, then looked back at me.

"Jane, as you are looking into Detective Di Marco's motor vehicle purchases, please get Detective Sanchez to follow up that safety inspection, perhaps it will lead to something" I nodded then looked across at Sharon as she continued.

"Farrar's a widower, his wife died five years ago" She glanced round the table. "She was killed in a mugging gone wrong, a junkie tried to do a bag snatch, the bag got tangled round her arm and she was pulled off her feet and fell, smashing her head as she did" I grimaced, as did several others. "She died of an internal hemorrhage before the paramedics could get there" Ana scratched her chin then spoke up.

"Was the junkie ever caught?" Sharon shook her head, pulling a file out of the paperwork in front of her and flipping it open as I recognised a LAPD personnel file, reading for a second then looking back up.

"Apparently not, there's a note here that he was found several days later, he'd died from an overdose, according to the autopsy the Los Angeles County Sheriff's coroner carried out he had a massive overdose of heroin in his system" There were frowns all-round the table at that, mine among them, that was awful convenient… Sharon was nodding. "There are notes from the department's psychologist in his file that suggested that Farrar was not reacting with the usual signs of grieving, instead he had closed himself off and exhibited a disregard for much besides his job" Brenda looked at her.

"What did the investigation into the junkie's death reveal?" Sharon shrugged as she answered.

"Not much, the stolen purse with the junkie's fingerprints was found in a nearby dumpster, to be honest no one looked too closely at a the death of a man who'd killed a cop's wife, most probably saw it as poetic justice" I frowned, while I could understand the sentiment that wasn't how things were supposed to be done. Brenda obviously felt the same if the scowl on her face was anything to go by, before she turned to look at Maura.

"Could I ask you to please have another look at that case Maura; Sharon, could you please give Maura the details of that case?" Sharon and Maura both nodded as we ploughed on, Brenda looking at Sharon and speaking.

"Is there anything else on Detective Farrar?" Sharon shrugged non-committedly and continued on.

"Very little else, his activities are comparatively low key, he seems to generally keep to himself outside work, no close family and no indication of a girlfriend" She shrugged. He does apparently regularly frequent prostitutes as there are a number of payments on his credit card from several establishments here in Los Angeles" She shrugged. "They cater to patrons who like to give or receive pain" I frowned and I wasn't the only one, Ana was the first to ask the question.

"Anger issues maybe?" There were shrugs around the table before Brenda frowned and looked over at Ana.

"Could I please ask you to investigate his activities at these brothels? It may lead to something…" She frowned and continued. "…or it may not but we need to leave no stone unturned." She glanced at Sharon. "Sharon can give you the details" Ana nodded and looked around.

"It won't be until sometime tomorrow afternoon though, we have Hernandez transferring up from the border, he should arrive early tomorrow" Brenda nodded and checked her watch, setting off a round of similar actions. It was after six.

"I suppose we should call it a night" She looked at Andrea. "Can you please call Mikki to escort you home" At Andrea's nod she then looked at me. "Jane would you be so kind as to let Mister Hennessy we'll be ready to head out in five minutes or so?" I nodded as well. Brenda smiled and looked round at us all.

"Well done everybody, we have a few more things to chase up and in the interim we might be able to wring some information out of Mister Hernandez first thing tomorrow"

I nodded again, we hadn't had a big breakthrough but I know how rare those things are, more a staple of cop shows than reality, police investigations are collections of little clues and leads which eventually led to bigger clues which in turn lead to bigger things. As I stood and turned to help Maura up I recalled that the good cops needed both persistence and patience. I'd always been good with the first, not so much with the latter, fortunately I'd always worked with cops who had plenty of that, together we'd solved a lot of cases.

As I pulled Maura's chair back and got a brilliant smile in thanks I reflected that I couldn't ask for a better group of people to work an investigation with than the ones round this table, we might not have made much apparent progress tonight, but it all helped and we were one small step closer to tossing Kennedy, Powell and the rest behind bars for good.

As far as I was concerned, that made it a good night and right now that was a good as I could reasonably ask for.


	75. Chapter 75

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**75 ****Persuasion comes in different forms**

Brenda's viewpoint

Sitting in Interrogation Room 2 my temper, never a sure thing, was getting a real workout, not helped by the arrogance of Hernandez and his pet lawyer, Gomez.

Gomez worked for one of Los Angeles largest law firms, they specialised in defending Latin American clients which meant they were one of the Cartel's go-to law firms for anything involving their interests. When I'd mentioned them to Andrea Hobbs the ADA had barely bothered keeping the outright scorn out of her voice, she'd crossed swords with them plenty of times and despised them. In particular she knew Gomez well, describing him as an effective defence lawyer but an amoral creep with non-existent ethics, he'd defend Mephistopheles himself if his outsized retainer was paid in advance.

Hernandez was playing it cool, saying nothing most of the time and when he did deign to speak only opening his mouth to protest his innocence. To hide exactly how much we'd pieced together we were only chasing him for the two assassins coming after Sharon and I, we knew if we tipped our hand about the Robbery / Homicide people Gomez would probably pass that info on to them the way Holcroft had and we'd lose any chance of getting to them, they'd be in the wind so fast, well Kennedy and maybe Powell would, I didn't know about the others, I considered it entirely possible that Kennedy and Powell were keeping the others in the dark about some of this, maybe fleeing and leaving the others to take the fall.

So we were hitting him hard on how he had been tied to the crime by the two assassins, however it seemed that he didn't believe that they'd given him up, a not unreasonable supposition given neither of them was saying anything. The result was we had a chain of silence, each person saying nothing and leaving us floundering in the dark. I was sure that if we could pry open one of them and get them talking we'd be able to roll up the whole rotten mess, but until then I was finding myself very, very frustrated, which wasn't helping my temper one little bit.

Be that as it may, it meant we were picking away without much in the way of leverage, it was obvious Hernandez, on Gomez instructions, was sitting pat, expecting that without concrete proof that this would all go away. I snorted to myself, over my dead body it would. I suddenly stilled, after the past few nights that was a little too close to home to be something to be making jokes about. To distract myself I turned my attention back on Hernandez and his lawyer.

"Mister Gomez, your client has been implicated in ordering the murder of a number of law enforcement personnel here in Los Angeles. These are serious charges that carry very heavy penalties" I shrugged, as if it didn't matter to me either way. "Any cooperation he provides will be taken into consideration by the District Attorney's office" Gomez was unimpressed, not that I was too surprised, until we brought out the big guns of our evidence, the video and phone taps, the case was pretty circumstantial.

"Chief Johnson, my client strenuously asserts his innocence, he is a law-abiding businessman who has been falsely accused" He smiled, this was all theatre and he knew it. "We will be defending my client against these fabricated and baseless accusations" I was prepared to give Gomez the benefit of the doubt, he was doing the best for his client, then he went and crossed the line. "And when we have seen these racist slurs against my client dismissed, I will have you censured by the judge for your witch-hunt against an innocent man" He smiled nastily. "I will see your job and your reputation lost"

I looked up at him through narrowed eyes then turned my head to address Sergeant Gabriel, who was standing against the room's side wall.

"Please get Mister Hernandez and his lawyer out of my sight Detective" He nodded and stepped forward as I spoke again. "Let's keep him in holding for the moment, in case we need to talk again soon" David nodded and helped Hernandez stand before manouvering him out the door as Gomez stood.

'"You have nothing tangible on my client, no charges that will stick in a court and no evidence to support them Chief Johnson, when will you admit you are wasting my client's time and release him?" I looked up and smiled at him, though I was sure it looked as false as it felt.

"Well Mister Gomez, I hope you got your money up front, because your client's going nowhere, he'll rot in holding until I charge him with a string of offences that'll see him spend the rest of his miserable life in jail" Gomez snorted his amusement.

"Rather than wasting my time and that of my client, perhaps you should look to your own safety first" At his words I tensed then forced myself to relax, deliberately not looking at him

"And what exactly do you mean by that Mister Gomez?"

"Just an observation, perhaps you should be more careful about the enemies you have made Chief Johnson..." I looked up to see him smile, entirely without humour. "it would be terrible were something...untoward to happen to you or your...associate, Sharon Raydor" I stomped down on my temper, certain if I was to say anything he'd brush it off as an expression of concern, rather than the blatant threat it so obviously was, instead my voice coming out flat and harsh.

"Get it of here before I have you thrown out" He smirked nastily, collected his expensive leather briefcase and, with a jaunty wave, departed, leaving me sitting there fuming.

"Y'know marm, I don't know how you do it, I'd just as soon ram his head through a wall if that was someone who'd threatened my wife" I looked round and up, I'd forgotten that one of the Talisman people was standing behind me. I stood and turned to look at Dennis Hennessy, a fit-looking sandy-haired older man with an accent that immediately took me back to my time in London every time I heard it.

"I understand that Mr Hennessy, but we're not allowed to do that, no matter how much I personally want to pull out my weapon, place it against his head and pull the trigger" I frowned, remembering that famous photo of the Saigon Police Chief doing that to a Viet Cong prisoner during the Tet Offensive. "There are downsides to that" He nodded slowly.

"That didn't work out so well for him either marm" I looked up, surprised that he'd picked up the reference but then I shouldn't have been, none of these people were stupid. After all stupid people didn't become Special Forces in the first place, let alone survive long in combat. He shrugged. "It was much the same thing; the guy he shot had apparently been found near the Saigon police barracks where his god-children and close family friends had been killed" I shrugged in return, picking up my papers.

"Well, these two missed and if I have anything to say about they'll rot in jail until California changes its policy and starts executing people on death row again" He nodded as we walked out of the room, seeing my other protector, Colin Lee, lever himself off the wall opposite the door and fall in step behind us as Dennis and I spoke.

"I can understand your frustration" He walked alongside me back towards my office, his eyes flicking around the room, an action so practiced that it had become as natural as breathing. "Back in Iraq we used to scare the bejesus out of them, grabbing them off the street and telling them to talk or we'd shoot them, but I don't suppose you can do that here" I sadly shook my head, noting Jane's Talisman people standing round, usually leaning against walls, trying to look inconspicuous but making sure they had the entire area covered.

"The law rather limits our options in that regard I'm afraid" He nodded.

"Probably a good thing marm, it's what separates us from animals. Those cartel chaps, from what I can tell, are in many respects animals, they live by the law of the jungle, the strong prey on the weak, killing anyone who resists, until a stronger predator preys on them" I glanced across at him.

"I'd like to hope we'd come somewhat further from the jungle in the last two thousand years than that Mr Hennessy" He stopped at my door and smiled as he let me go first.

"People like you are what keep the jungle at bay marm, enforcing the law of man rather than the law of the jungle" I smiled as I entered and made my way to my desk, looking back at him as he followed me in, automatically taking up a position against one wall where he could cover both doors into the office as I sat while Colin took up position outside. Looking up at Hennessy I shrugged.

"Sometimes the jungle gets in anyway Mister Hennessy, look at parts of Mexico where the cartels hold sway" He nodded gently in agreement.

"Yes marm, sometimes it does. Perhaps it's a salutary lesson in why we need laws and civilisation, to show that we're better than that, sometimes we need a horrible example to remind us of the alternative" I went to nod when something he said resonated. '_…a horrible example_'. I remembered the '_example_' the Sinaloa had made of that poor accountant, she'd been one of their own, until she'd had an attack of conscience. The DEA report that Anastasia had passed across had been matter of fact but the horror had shone through, the truth was they'd behaved like barbarians, trying to terrorise any of their own who'd even contemplate selling them out. Hennessy must have realised I'd thought of something, as he left me to think it through, bless the man for being so perceptive.

Sinaloa were trying to intimidate their own people, men of violence who didn't flinch from much. Show them that the penalties for betrayal were so heinous that no sane person would risk them, or so they hoped; loyalty through fear, fear of something worse than a quick death. Would they be any more merciful on someone who wasn't one of theirs, I felt my mouth pull into a wry smile; of course not, look at us, surrounded by superlative bodyguards to keep them at bay. Maybe if we could make that work for us…

I stood up and walked to the door, looking for Sanchez and finding him talking to Provenza, looking at the Murder Board. Wandering over I smiled widely, getting a suspicious look from both of them, apparently when I'm that happy and Sharon's not involved, they worry; that thought made me grin even wider before I forced the grin away and spoke.

"Pardon me gentlemen, but could I trouble one of you to ask Detective Mendoza to come and visit when she's available?" They nodded. "And when she arrives, Detective Sanchez, could you please escort her into my office"

"You got it Chief" I nodded again and spun on my heel, walking back into my office.

"You look like someone who's just been hit by inspiration" I looked up at Hennessy who was taking up his spot against the wall once more, I hadn't noticed he'd followed me out into the murder room, though I probably should have expected it, and smiled.

"I have and I have you to thank for it" He raised an eyebrow then smiled, sketching a tiny bow.

"All part of the service marm" I sat back and thought this through, it might work. The trick would be skating it past their lawyer and later past a judge in court; I needed a second opinion, from someone who knew enough about the law to advise me without a lawyer's caution. Fortunately I had just the person, Sharon answering on the third ring.

"Hey you" Sharon must have seen my extension on the caller ID.

"Hey you back. Can you come up and see me when you've got a moment, I've got an idea" A couple of minutes later Sharon walked in, preceeded and followed by her protectors Julia Childs and Klaus Hauser. They joined the other guardians in the room from Jane and my protective details, leaning back against walls, quick conversations, relieving each other for a few moments to get a coffee or to go to the bathroom. I noticed my squad trying hard not to notice the activity and treating it as if it was something normal. I smiled, they were all good people and I was very lucky.

"Good morning Chief, you wanted to talk" Sharon in professional mode, something I could match.

"That I did Commander, I need your opinion on something I want to try with the two cartel assassins" She sat in one of the chairs across the desk and raised an eyebrow, inviting me to continue. "They've lawyered up and won't talk, they seem to think they'll get a few years in a California jail on some minor B&amp;E and weapon possession charges, which doesn't seem to bother them none" Sharon nodded slowly.

"Much as it pains me from their perspective I can see their point" I smiled.

"But what if we offered them a nastier alternative?" Sharon's eyes narrowed and her lips pursed, just like they used to when I was trying to pull something shifty on her, back when we were battling it out in the bad old days, finally she leaned forward and spoke, a little dubiously I have to admit.

"I'm listening"

I outlined what I had planned as she nodded slowly, then sat back, pulling her glasses off and massaging her eyes, then sat there, not speaking, eyes closed, for almost a minute; I didn't interrupt, I knew Sharon was thinking it over, looking for problems or issues that might render whatever we might learn inadmissible in court. Finally her eyes opened and she nodded slowly, then put her glasses back on and spoke, allowing that it could work and it was legal and that there were some precedents she could think of which supported my ideas. We chatted about them for a couple of minutes then she took her leave to let me get ready, her shadows falling into step around her as she left. I swung my chair round and looked up at my protector; he'd heard it all after all.

"Am I encroaching a little too far into the jungle Mr Hennessy?" He bobbed his head a little in an undecided gesture then shook his head.

"Probably not marm, after all, they get to make the final decision" I noticed he'd suddenly tightened up a little, something I'd come to recognise as him reacting to someone unknown entering. I looked round to see Mikki Mendoza had just walked in and was looking round, a small frown on her face as she saw the additional unfamiliar people scattered through the room.

"That's Detective Mendoza, I've been waiting for her" He glanced at me then spoke into a small microphone hidden on his jacket cuff.

"Identified and expected" The other Talisman people in the room relaxed slightly at the word in their ears, it was all so quick you barely saw it unless you knew what to look for, as Mikki walked into plain sight from my office. "Bloody hell" I quickly looked up at him in surprise.

"What?" He smiled in apology then explained.

"Sorry marm, but does your police department employ any normal-looking women as detectives?" I looked up at Mikki, she was standing at Provenza's desk, smiling at something her old partner had said, she'd been his rookie years before and they were still close as I nodded slowly.

"I take your point, Mikki is very good at her job though" He nodded as Sanchez walked over to her and they spoke for a moment before he nodded his head in the direction of my office and they both walked this way; he was right though, Mikki was striking, she reminded me of Jane in many ways, similar features, lean build, dark mane of hair and a 'don't-mess-with–me' attitude. Sanchez and Mendoza arrived at my door and I invited them in, smiling.

"Please have a seat Detectives, I have need of your services" They shot a glance at one another, then walked in and sat, Mikki's eyes flicking over Misterr Hennessy but showing nothing. "How good are your acting skills?" In reply I got two sets of raised eyebrows.

An hour later I was in the electronics room with Buzz, watching the feeds from both interrogation rooms. Fortunately Buzz spoke Spanish, so he was able to translate as I watched Sanchez and Gabriel in interogation room 1 and Mendoza and Rizzoli in room 2 speaking to the two Cartel men. Sanchez was trying to get his man to cough up, we'd spoken about it and agreed that they would try and get them to speak first before we tried our play. It looked like it wasn't working any more than it had when I'd tried so they were giving Plan B a go.

"Chief, Detective Mendoza is telling him that we don't have enough to convict them, so we're going to extradite them?" His voice rose in anger as he heard Mikki's words, his eyes flicking to me.

"It's okay Buzz, just a ploy is all" I was touched that he was outraged at the thought they'd get away, Buzz was as much a valued part of my team as any of the detectives, plus smart as they come and a good friend. He nodded and continued.

"_He's saying it's a trick, you won't let me go, not after accusing me of wanting to kill your senior women cops_" He glanced at me. "I'm editing a lot here Chief, they weren't exactly the words used" I smiled, I may not speak Spanish but I'd heard enough Latino gangers and druggies cursing me to know when those words were being used.

"I understand Buzz and thank you" He nodded and directed his attention back to the audio feeds as Mikki leaned across the table, her voice low and angry. Buzz leaned forward and started translating again.

"_We don't have enough to send you to death row, so it'd be a waste of our time trying you on minor charges, you'll be out in a few years anyway_" I noticed the half smile on the cartel man's face. "Detective Sanchez is telling his guy the same thing" He paused, his head tilting as he listened in to two different audio feeds and making sense of both, a trick I couldn't have pulled off if I'd tried.

"_As much as it pains me to do so, we are going t__o __extradite you back to Mexico, your name popped up as wanted in connection with a murder down there_" Mikki's cartel man was smiling, he probably knew his chances of spending even a day in prison down there were non-existent.

"_So we're going to hand you back to the Mexican authorities. Personally, it's not what I wanted, I'd rather see you rot here, but a murder charge overrides the minor charges we have you for so you're going back to Mexico_" I watched Mikki lean forwards, her posture conveying menace and contempt, none of it feigned.

"_We can hand you back anywhere, so we've decided to hand you back at Monterrey, we've already let the local police there know you're coming_" I saw the man's expression change, the smile fading rapidly.

"_I'm from Culiacan, send me back there_" There was a burst of louder, faster words which Buzz didn't bother translating, instead he glanced across at me and spoke

"Oh man, he really doesn't want to go to Monterrey Chief, he's pretty adamant about it in fact" His eyes flicked between the monitors. "They both are" I nodded, seeing the defiant expressions on both men's faces, before speaking up.

"I'm not surprised; Culiacan is in the heart of Sinaloa territory, figures he'd want to be sent there. Monterrey on the other hand is in the heart of Los Zeta's territory, no love lost for the Sinaloa's there" We watched as the man Sanchez was talking to started to get up, only to be slammed none-too-gently back into his seat by David Gabriel hard as I tried hard not to smile. My squad was in a foul mood after what had happened, threats to Jane and I, threats to people they knew and liked like Ana, Nat and Maura. Even threatening Sharon had pissed them off, for all the snarky comments directed at her, they respected her, plus now she was with me she'd apparently been escalated to 'important to keeping the Chief happy' status.

Buzz couldn't keep up with the translations, the Cartel man was shouting, screaming words quickly, whatever he was saying had no impact on Mikki however, she was giving him as good as she got, plus her disgust and indignation was plain to see.

In the other interrogation room the cartel man was sitting there, a grim expression had settled on his face. Buzz nodded and tapped that screen.

"That one claims we're bluffing and demanding his lawyer, he wants to speak to his lawyer to stop us sending him to Monterrey" I nodded slowly and looked up at Flynn who was standing next to Mr Hennessy.

"Lieutenant Flynn, would you be so good as to call Mr Holcroft when you can and tell him his client wants to see him" Andy turned and looked at me with a look that was pure skepticism.

"Uh, sure Chief, should that be before or after I finish my coffee" I smiled as sweetly as I could.

"Why Lieutenant, you're a senior, experienced officer. I'll leave it up to your discretion" Andy nodded, making a show of thinking it over, exchanging a quick glance with Hennessy who was standing nearby, covering the door and then looked back at our suspects on the monitors.

"After then, I find it easier dealing with scumbags after a coffee, maybe even two" I looked up and grinned, one they both returned before Buzz dragged my attention back to the screen.

"It looks like Detective Mendoza's man isn't too happy" He wasn't wrong, he'd stood up and was shaking his fist at Mikki, before she could react he'd taken two steps towards her when he was suddenly smashed face first into a wall, Jane had stepped in, swept him partly off his feet and had him pinned against the wall, he was screaming at her, in a combination of Spanish and English. Jane had his arm bent way up behind him, keeping him painfully pinned, forcing it higher as he started pleading in English for Jane to release his arm.

Jane silently held a hand out and Mikki equally quietly passed a set of cuffs over allowing Jane to cuff him and drag him back to his seat while Jane and Mikki both noted that his English had suddenly improved out of sight. Mikki switched to English and repeated that he was going to Mexico, where exactly he would end up was up to her and right now, that was Monterrey. He started screaming foul abuse at her in both Spanish and English, or at least he did until Jane grabbed him by the arms and dragged him up out of the chair, none too gently and started pushing him towards the door, at which point he'd started shouting in English.

"What are you doing, I know my rights, you cannot do this" Jane shrugged.

"Watch me" Mikki stood there, impassively watching Jane move the struggling prisoner towards the door, her arms crossed.

"Enjoy Monterrey, its nice this time of year" The fear in the man's eyes grew at Mikki's words.

"No, you can't, they'll kill me" Mikki shrugged.

"Were handing you over to the Federales, so you'll be in good hands"

"But they'll kill me" Jane slammed his back against the wall and stared at him from all of three inches away from his face, her voice low with anger and disgust but still coming through the speakers clearly.

"You and your buddy were sent here to kill my boss and her partner, who are our friends, then you were going to come round to my house and kill me and my fiancé, before moving on to kill more of our friends" She stared him in the face, her eyes cold and her voice flat and deadly calm "Tell me again why the hell I should worry about what happens to you" The man looked into her eyes, I don't know what he saw but he shrank back from it, turning to stare at Mikki in hope, his voice pleading.

"You cannot do this, they will kill me and they will torture me then kill me slowly" Mikki shrugged, her voice dripped with her lack of concern.

"Not my call, to be honest, I don't particularly care, you're out of our hands and what happens to you then is something for the Federales, not our problem" Jane frowned, her voice cold as ice.

"If it was up to me, I'd happily shoot you and toss your body in a dumpster to be recycled into landfill, except you're not worth the cost of a bullet. Besides, that'd make me no better than you and I'm nothing like you. So you get a trip back home and we wipe our hands of you" Mikki walked a little closer.

"I'd prefer to try you in a US court and send you to jail for a very long time, but as you won't talk, I have no choice but to send you back to Mexico to face their justice for a capital crime"

"Please you cannot send me back, they will kill me" Mikki shrugged.

"Tell someone who cares, cause that ain't me" Jane jerked the man away from the wall and started marching him towards the door, taunting him as she did.

"Cry me a river pal; I'm sure your 'friends' in Monterrey will welcome you with open arms"

"Remind me never to piss those two off" At Andy's comment I turned to look up at a thoughtful Flynn, noting that Mr Hennessy was nodding slowly, his accent pronounced.

"Bloody good idea actually" I smiled to myself and turned back to the monitor in time to see Mikki holding up her hand.

"Hang on Jane; let me explain the situation to our friend here one last time" Jane snorted, her voice aggrieved.

"What for Mikki? Toss him on the next plane south and let his own people deal with him. That way I won't have to live wondering if he's going to get out of prison and come after us" Mikki shrugged.

"I'd happily toss his ass on a plane as well, but we have to offer him a deal" The hit man's eyes darted from one woman to the other, furtive and shifty.

"Deal, what deal? What deal is this?" Ignoring the man's hopeful tone Mikki shrugged.

"You waive your right to have your lawyer present, then tell us everything you know about the job you were sent on, I have you sent to booking and you're charged with attempted murder, that means probably fifteen plus years in jail, seeing as California doesn't execute people anymore" She spread her hands. "Otherwise, we frog march your stupid ass down to the Mexican Federal Police liaison office here in LA and they extradite you back to Monterrey, where your friends will no doubt be waiting for you with open arms" Jane nodded, a little bitterness evident in her tone.

"Given what they do to people down there, I'm sure they could be specially inventive when it came to you" Mikki raised an eyebrow, her voice more curious than concerned.

"No love lost between the Zeta's and Sinaloa so I'm pretty sure they'll come up with something really special for you" They stood there waiting for probably 20 seconds, Mikki slowly folding her arms while the hit man looked back and forward between them, if he was looking for compassion, he wasn't finding a hint of it in either woman, they were both as cold as death. As I sat there watching I came to a decision, it would mean a dreadful fight with Commander Ruiz of the Special Investigation Service and probably Pope as well, but I decided right then and there that I wanted Mikki for Major Crimes, she was way too good not to have as part of the squad, plus she'd been a big help to us in the past too. As I thought it through the woman in question shrugged and spoke, obviously unconcerned.

"That's a one-time offer by the way. Start talking now or you take whatever you know to the grave and we get on with living our lives" Jane shrugged, her voice filled with impatient annoyance.

"No matter what, I know my life expectancy's better than yours" Finally Mikki shrugged, an expression of resignation settling on her attractive features, she was working him like a pro.

"Fine, your call and your loss, give my regards to the Zeta's. Take him away Jane, he's all yours" I frowned; it looks like this wasn't working, one refusing to talk, the other demanding his lawyer.

"Wait, wait! Yes, wait!" It was Jane and Mikki's man, his shoulder's slumping in defeat. "What do you want to know?" Mikki and Jane exchanged a glance before Jane directed him back to the table and a seat.

"Here's how it's going to go down" Mikki walked over and spun her chair round backwards before sitting down straddling it facing him, leaning forward against the seat back. "You formally waive the right to an attorney, then you tell us everything you know, we'll be cross referencing it against everything your buddy is telling us" At the man's startled look she nodded. "Yes, your confederate is already spilling, he took the deal rather than go to Monterrey. So you tell us everything and if we find out you're lying we'll sling your sorry, useless ass on the first plane south, understand?" The Cartel man nodded; when he spoke there was fear in his voice.

"What do I get?" Jane leaned in and spoke close to his ear, her voice harsh.

"You get to live in prison. It's not great but it's a better option than you were going to give me, so take it or leave it" She shrugged. "I know what I'd prefer, but it's not my call, it's hers" Jane nodded towards Mikki. "Impress her man, or I get to send you on a one-way, all expenses paid trip south of the border" Jane turned and walked a few steps away and leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms and turning an angry look on him. "Three guesses which one I'd prefer you take?" Mikki nodded and leaned forward.

"As you can see, you have two choices" She waited while he sat there, looking between them both, seeing utterly no compassion in either woman's face before Jane spoke again.

"Choose one" Mikki's voice was as just as cold as Jane's had been.

"Choose wisely". Buzz looked round at me.

"I'm with the Lieutenant, I wouldn't want either of them pissed at me either" I smiled, one which grew wider as Mister Hennessy spoke.

"Agreed" Before I could speak the Cartel man nodded slowly, his voice hesitant.

"What do you want to know?" Jane and Mikki exchanged a look, their faces impassive, but I let a wider smile out as Mikki started the interrogation.

"Let's start with a name, yours" He swallowed, but took in the looks on both women's faces and spoke.

"Arturo Perez" Mikki smiled, not a particularly nice one and spoke up from where she was still sitting facing him.

"Well Mr. Perez, firstly, do you waive your rights to counsel" Perez nodded, prompting Mikki to speak up, her voice impatient. "Speak up please" He looked up at her sharp tone and nodded slowly before speaking.

"Yes, I waive my rights" Mikki and Jane exchanged a look before Jane nodded, Mikki returning her gaze to Perez and asking the $64,000 question as I found myself holding my breath, anticipation rising.

"Very well Mr. Perez, let's start with who told you to come to LA and why" Perez nodded slowly.

"A man named Hernandez; he is the one who sent us here to Los Angeles"

I leaned back, sharing a smile with Buzz, Flynn and Hennessy, we had our break.


	76. Chapter 76

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**76 Moves and Counter Move**

Sharon's viewpoint

I'd got an urgent phone call from Ruiz down in SIS late afternoon telling me to get down there so I'd called Brenda to find she was already on her way. With our escorts we'd met near the lifts on the SIS floor before making our way in to find Ruiz waiting for us, leading us into his media room, two of our protectors, Dennis Hennessey and Julia Childs followed us inside and closed the door after us, leaving Colin and Klaus to stand watch outside. Jose didn't beat around the bush, jumping straight into it.

"We intercepted a call to Kennedy from an outside number less than twenty minutes ago..." He checked his watch. "Well twenty five now, we're currently running down the number now, we should have it in a few minutes" He nodded to the woman at the console. "Run it please Lydia" She nodded, starting the surveillance tapes as we watched and listened, ignoring the usual slight mismatch between the audio and video tracks as a phone rang before a familiar voice was heard.

"Kennedy, Robbery Homicide" In response a woman's voice was heard, clear with a slight accent, possibly Latino.

"That is Detective Sergeant Kennedy?"

"It is, can I ask whose calling?" Ignoring the question the woman spoke.

"I was asked to pass on an urgent message Detective" Kennedy's voice reflected a hint of interest.

"Yeah, what message?"

"Mister Hernandez has been arrested but police have nothing definite to convict him with" On the surveillance tape Kennedy suddenly stilled as he looked around then dropped his voice.

"Can you repeat that?" The woman ignored him.

"That was the only message I have for you, good day Detective" With that the call ended leaving Kennedy staring at the phone's handset before slowly replacing it then looking around, the first signs of worry visible on his face.

At Ruiz's order his tech sped through the video tape as Kennedy sat there, deep in thought until Powell walked into the squad room, slowing it down to show Powell making his way to his desk and sitting down, even as Kennedy got up and walked over to his partner's desk. The bug on Powell's desk picked up their conversation.

"We need to talk pal" Powell looked up, the curiosity evident in his voice.

"Yeah, what about?" Kennedy looked around nervously then back to Powell, shaking his head.

"Not here, tell Di Marco to meet us over in Los Angeles Mall in ten minutes then head over, I'll tell Humphries the same and make my way there" Powell looked round carefully and lowered his voice, concern shading it.

"Why, what's wrong?" Kennedy shook his head.

"Not here, just do it and get moving" Powell looked up at Kennedy with a narrowed glance before Kennedy abruptly moved away, intercepting Humphries as she headed across the squad room with a cup in her hand. They had a quick conversation before Kennedy headed out as Humphries returned to her desk, putting her cup down and grabbing her purse then making her way out of the squad room.

Meanwhile Powell had moved over to Di Marco's desk and perched on the corner, waiting for Di Marco to finish a call he was on with the Department's human resources people, enquiring about his holiday balance. That conversation over Powell leaned in and spoke quietly, though his words were easily picked up by the hidden surveillance microphone covering Di Marco's desk.

"Los Angeles Mall, ten minutes, meet us there and don't say anything to anyone" With that he got up and walked away, returning to his desk for a moment, obviously giving Kennedy and Humphries time to clear the floor before Powell followed them out. A couple of minutes later Di Marco did the same. Ruiz motioned to his tech to stop the tape and turned to Brenda and I as it ended.

"I sent two of my people right after them but the best they could get was some shots of them together. They ended up meeting in the Mall on the next block over; they didn't sit down, just walked their way through it" At his words the tech cued up photos of the four of them strolling through the mall; it was a smart play, they were far enough away that no one could overhear them without being obvious, the ambient noise from the mall's piped music, the sounds of passing shoppers and such meant you'd need a shotgun mike to hear anything and in the open spaces of the mall as they walked round it'd be difficult to get one close enough to hear what they were saying without being detected. Ruiz was till talking.

"They walked round for about five minutes" In the photos we could see Di Marco and Powell looking worried, Kennedy frowning and Humphries was impassive. "We don't know what they talked about, though there were some fairly intense conversations before they then broke up and made their individual ways back to their desks" Ruiz turned to face us both. "We've been keeping an eye on them since they got back but they've generally been doing their job, nothing untoward that we've seen" He shrugged. "None of the bugs on their office or cell phones have recorded anything unusual but that's neither here nor there" Brenda nodded and spoke.

"It's not all that hard to get your hands on a burner phone if you know what you're doing, and all four of them would" I nodded as did Ruiz but before he could speak there was a knock at the door; at his call it opened and one of his team poked his head in.

"Sorry to interrupt but I ran down that number you wanted" He looked at a piece of paper in his hand. "It's listed to a major downtown law firm, Guzman, Santiago and Associates" He frowned. "Unfortunately I wasn't able to track down exactly which person it's listed for" Ruiz nodded.

"No matter, thanks Troy" With that the door closed leaving the six of us looking at each other, finally Brenda spoke.

"Makes sense I guess, Guzman, Santiago and Associates are Hernandez' lawyers, so that's the connection right there" Ruiz frowned then spoke up.

"What benefit does Hernandez get from tipping off Kennedy?" I exchanged a look with Brenda then spoke.

"There's one that immediately occurred to me" I shrugged then pressed on. "It's possible that Kennedy is being told to enable him to tie up any loose ends that might tie Hernandez to any of the murders that he and the others have done, that way making it more difficult for us to find any connections between them" Brenda nodded.

"As far as any of them believe, we don't have a connection between the assassins, Hernandez and the Robbery / Homicide crew" She frowned for a moment then went on. "They must think that if everyone keeps their mouth shut we have nothing to go on" I grimaced.

"Yes, Hernandez thinks we can't really tie him to the assassins as long as he says nothing and they say nothing" I rubbed my hands together slowly as I spoke. "Same with him to the conspirators, Kennedy and his partners think we have no way of tying them to him as long as they keep quiet, each is thinking if the other's keep their mouth shut then we have nothing to investigate and it'll all blow over" Ruiz frowned.

"But we do know, or at least some of it" I nodded.

"True, but we're the only ones in possession of the whole puzzle" I pulled a face for a moment before amending that statement. "Well some of it anyway" I paused as a thought occurred to me then continued. "There is another possibility that I just thought of" At their looks of encouragement I kept going. "It could just as easily have been a message to Kennedy to bug out, skip town and disappear" Brenda frowned.

"You think so?" She looked at Ruiz then back to me. "As far as they're concerned we have nothing to tie them together" Ruiz suddenly sat up.

"On the other hand if those four suddenly vanished, we'd have nothing to connect them to Hernandez" He frowned. "Well nothing bar the video footage but they don't know about that" The tech, Lydia waved her hand tentatively and spoke.

"Pardon me Chief…" Brenda looked down at her and nodded.

"Yes detective?"

"Excuse me Chief, but why didn't they tell the other two suspects, I mean you have six suspects as I understand it" At her question there were looks passed around the room before I nodded and answered her.

"A good question, perhaps they don't know much, or Kennedy and Powell don't trust them with everything" Brenda nodded, then frowned, looking over at me before addressing her answer to the young detective.

"It could also be that they're expendable, they could be left behind as sacrificial goats, maybe they don't know much, but it could be that if there is a connection back to Hernandez it leads to them, so that while we're busy chasing that link down Kennedy, Powell and the others will have already vanished into the night" Ruiz nodded slowly.

"Is there any evidence, any sign that they're prepared to skip town?" Brenda handled that one.

"It certainly looks like Kennedy and Powell have done some preparation, we can't locate what Kennedy's been doing with his money but Powell's definitely been stashing his cash, Andrea Hobbs from the DA's office thinks he might have been buying up shares on overseas stock markets, places he could easily liquidate the shares from somewhere outside the reach of US law enforcement" Ruiz rubbed his chin slowly, then spoke.

"Makes sense, someplace without an extradition treaty" I nodded, he was right.

"Exactly, up until now we've had no indication that any of them were planning on running, certainly we've not seen anything that suggests any if them were making preparations to leave" Brenda piped up.

"Based on their financials it doesn't appear that any of the others are prepared to bolt, we've not seen any indication that the rest of them have been stashing money away" Ruiz's detective, Lydia spoke.

"Either didn't think they'll be caught or thinking they're too smart to be" She shook her head. "Either arrogant or stupid" I was about to speak when I was interrupted by a surprising source. It was Dennis Hennessey.

"I would rather lean towards arrogance" He was unfazed as we all turned to look at him standing against the wall as he continued. "Stupid people do not become successful detectives marm, at least not from what I've seen recently" I felt my cheeks warm as he continued. "From what I have learned in the last few days shadowing you, the main conspirators; those four…" He off-handedly waved at the monitor where our four suspects were frozen in mid step in the middle of the mall. "…have had several years to get away with all that they have done, with no real evidence that anyone was aware of what they were doing. They were no doubt worried and cautious the first few times, however those clever buggars have got away with it for so long they believe they won't be caught" There were nods all round as he continued.

"In any conspiracy there are levels of involvement, knowledge and trust, inner circles, middle circles and outer circles if you will, this one seems much the same" He nodded at the screen. "The two detectives we first saw seem like they are the inner circle. From what I understand they are suspected of the initial murders?" I nodded in agreement as Brenda turned to completely face him, from the look on her face it was obvious she was fascinated with his perspective, it was different and thus intriguing; that was my girlfriend, she was always inquisitive, always wanting to learn more.

"They were, it was their cases that started Sharon's…" She paused then corrected herself. "Commander Raydor's investigation in the first place" Hennessey nodded.

"Exactly so, I would therefore surmise that they were the initial conspirators, they have since drawn these other two into the conspiracy, as they immediately called them together when they got that news they are probably privy to much of what is going on, though I doubt they are either completely trusted or fully aware of everything happening, the middle circle as it were" Ruiz interjected with a question.

"What about Farrar and Osmond?" Hennessey tipped his head in acknowledgement of the question.

"They look like they are on the outer fringes of the conspiracy, not fully trusted and given only as much information as they need to know to do their jobs" I nodded as Brenda spoke.

"Pawns?" He shook his head in response.

"Not exactly marm, probably trusted to do what they are told but not with the critical decisions" He shrugged. "I've seen quite a bit of this sort of thing in my time, conspiracies I mean; first in Northern Ireland as a young lad during the troubles, but more recently in the Middle East with the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and their less pleasant fellow-travellers" Julia spoke up.

"If, as you suggested, they may be left behind if the prime suspects do flee then it makes sense that their understanding of everything is limited, the less they know the less they can spill afterwards" There was a general round of nods before Ruiz spoke.

"Given that the first thing Kennedy thought of was to get out of his office it looks like he's suspecting something, he took steps to get out of their normal working area and into a location where surveillance was difficult to conduct" I frowned.

"It could be, on the other hand it could just as easily be a well-deserved sense of paranoia kicking in" Brenda smiled wryly.

"It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you, which we are" There was another knock on the door, it was the SIS detective Troy again, he looked in and spoke to Ruiz.

"Sorry for the interruption boss, but all six of the people we're watching have just left, not all at once but over the past few minutes"

"Did you get a reason?" He shrugged.

"Kennedy and Powell are apparently looking into a case and have gone to talk to a witness, at least that's what they told Commander Taylor" Ruiz nodded; the looked up and asked the questions we all wanted to.

"And the others?"

"Humphries said she had to make a trip to the hairdresser, Di Marco was heading downstairs to the range in the basement, Osmond and Farrar are on a call out to a 7/11 robbery, apparently the latest in a series" Ruiz nodded and looked at us, I looked over at him and he unconsciously straightened under the scrutiny of FIDs Ice Queen.

"Detective, can we confirm all of their activities" He shook his head.

"Not all of them Ma'am; some yes; Osmond and Farrar, we have Mendoza on her way to the scene to confirm they are heading there. Same with Di Marco, one of our guys, Smith, is down in the range now, ostensibly getting some pre-qualification shoot work in" He shrugged. We're trying to find out exactly where Kennedy and Powell are, they didn't give a location and Commander Taylor didn't ask" Troy frowned unhappily. "Williams was sent to follow Humphries, but she didn't take her car, instead she walked through the mall and then grabbed a cab, Williams lost her, there wasn't another cab before Humphries cab got out of sight"

We exchanged a look; at least three of them were now off the grid, location and activities unknown. "_Wonderful_" I thought, before I remembered my manners.

"Thank you Detective" He looked a little relieved that I hadn't bitten his head off, no doubt my overblown reputation at work. Brenda was running a hand through her locks, something she did when she was frustrated, before she looked up and spoke.

"Well, they now know something's up and may well be planning something, but we don't know what" She shrugged then looked up at Troy. Detective... sorry, I don't know your name?" He straightened.

"Detective Troy Martin Chief" Brenda nodded then continued on.

"Well Detective Martin, did any of them say anything that suggested they had planned any sort of get together tonight?" Martin shook his head.

"No Ma'am, nothing like that" He glanced at his watch, setting off a wave of us doing the same; it was 4.19, as he continued. "Given the time Detective Humphries said she'd be heading home afterwards and Kennedy and Farrar both told Commander Taylor they'd see him in the morning" I exchanged a glance with Brenda, both of us thinking much the same thing, before she put it into words.

"Well thank heavens for small mercies" She smiled a trifle bitterly. "That should mean they don't have anything planned tonight" Ruiz looked confused.

"Why?" I glanced at Brenda then handled his question.

"Each time there has been an attempt on our lives the conspirators have made a very conscious effort to be seen somewhere public, as a group, so that they have an airtight alibi" Ruiz nodded as Lydia spoke.

"Really?" Brenda favored her with a glance and answered, her voice carrying more than a trace of her annoyance.

"Oh yes, a very social group are our suspects, always out doing things together and always in a public space. Drinks and a steak at O'Malley's the night the assassins came after us and the whole Robbery / Homicide squad went disco bowling the night of the second attack" Her mouth twisted sardonically. "I'd be willing to bet real money one or other of our suspects suggested it each time" There was silence around the room at that, until Julia Childs spoke, a little tentatively.

"Pardon me, but given you know they were behind the first attempt on your lives and suspect they were behind the second, why don't you just arrest the lot of them" Dennis Hennessey nodded once.

"That would be a bloody good idea actually; anything that reduces the threat's a good thing in my book" Ruiz handled the answer.

"We have two taped conversations that definitely implicates Kennedy in the first attempt, plus another that ties Powell, Di Marco and Farrar into a conspiracy to commit, it's tight for the conspiracy but we've got nothing to connect them to any of the other killings" I nodded.

"We have nothing to tie in either Humphries or Farrar either, at this point all we have is theories, suppositions and guesswork" Brenda stepped in to back me up.

"If we try and arrest them right now, Kennedy would probably stay behind bars until a trial, the others would probably be out on bail in a day or two and if Humphries and Farrar say nothing, we'd have to let them go, free to do whatever they want" She grimaced. "They'd then know we're on to them and god knows exactly what they'd do then"

There was silence for the moment before finally, it was Hennessey who spoke.

"That's rather disappointing if I say so myself"


	77. Chapter 77

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**77 Under fire**

**Maura**

Hearing Danny curse from the drivers seat I looked up, just in time to see a fast moving blur coming from our left. I barely had time to flinch before the impact threw us around the inside of the car like dice in a cup, the deafening sound of the impact matched by loud bangs as the airbags throughout the car went off. Shaking my head I slowly gathered my wits and looked out to see that we'd been hit by a truck, the left side of our car was smashed in, I was grateful I insisted we both use seatbelts whenever we travelled... Jane! I looked round, desperate to see that she was unhurt, to hear her voice

"Maura, oh god Maura, you ok? Talk to me" I'd never been so happy to hear her voice, I looked over to see Jane untangling herself from the seatbelt, reaching out for me, trying to check for injuries. I nodded.

"Are you all right Jane? Have you been hurt?" She shook her head.

"I'm ok, what about you?" I looked down, but apart from feeling a little numb from the impact I seemed generally unharmed although I suspected I was going to sport an impressive collection of bruises later.

"I am fine, just a little shaken" I suddenly noticed Jane had her gun out and was staring out the windows, looking out I realised I was hearing shots from outside the car. There were men running towards us with guns out, as I suddenly realised Claudia had left the car, she was nowhere to be seen; turning to Jane I asked the question uppermost in my mind.

"Jane, what's happening?" She looked grim.

"An ambush, stay here" Before I could move, she had opened the door and rolled out, leaving me grasping for where she'd been as the door slammed shut.

"No!" How could she leave me, go out there where she might be killed? I'd never forgive her if anything happened. As I stared after her I suddenly realised that Danny was groaning, moaning actually, in real pain. Craning forward I could see the drivers area was badly crushed and that he was clutching at his thigh.

"Danny, what is wrong?" He moaned as I barely made out the word leg. Before I realised what I was doing I had scrambled between the front seats, kneeling on the passenger seat and pushing the deflated steering wheel airbag out of the way to see what had happened. The foot well and driver's side door were heavily smashed in, trapping his legs. Leaning forward I ran my hand down first one leg, then the other, as far as I could reach before encountering the sharp metal trapping him. As I did I heard a harsh rattling sound, my mind unsure of the cause, until a bullet deflected off the passenger side window, we were being shot at. Gritting my teeth and hopeful that the armor of the car would stand up to the abuse, I leaned forward and continued my examination.

My fingers encountered sticky wetness on his left leg and I withdrew it to find my fingers were covered in blood, he was hemorrhaging from a significant injury, possibly an arterial vessel had been damaged, based on the blood's bright red colouration, suggesting high oxygenation. Feeling down again I felt something jagged piercing the skin from inside, probably a shattered fibular.

There was little I could do without a medical kit, however I could try and stem the bleeding. I stripped off my jacket, a Balenciaga that was fortunately not one of my favorites', sliding it down past his knee and pushing it into the injury area, trying to force it in far enough to put pressure on the artery, getting a muffled scream as I did.

"I am so sorry Danny, but you are bleeding badly and we need to staunch the blood loss, I know it hurts but you must hang on" He nodded, his eyes squeezed shut in agony as his chest heaved.

I fumbled his belt undone and pulled it around his waist and off, before forcing it under his thigh, getting a shuddering moan as I moved his leg.

"We have to set a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. Help is on its way, so stay with me for a moment" He was barely coherent with the pain, but somehow heard enough to nod again, as I looped the belt around his thigh and with a savage motion tightened it as hard as I possibly could. He jerked in pain, before his head slumped forward, unconscious from either the blood loss or the pain.

I suddenly realised I had been so fixated on helping Danny that I had lost track of what was happening outside. I looked up to see our protectors crouching or lying down, firing at groups of men, some armed with pistols and others with what appeared to be assault rifles. I looked round but couldn't see Jane anywhere, knowing her she would be where things were most dangerous. With effort I forced my attention back inside as I checked on Danny's vital signs again, his pulse was slowing but still strong; hopefully we could get him some medical attention soon. That thought brought home the realisation that the shooting was dying down, the Talisman people were starting to move around and I saw at least one of the attackers running away, his weapon in hand.

Seconds later I saw Jane appear next to our car, looking round alertly before ducking down, peering in at me and giving a 'thumbs up' gesture. She seemed unhurt thank god, as I felt a wave of emotion wash over me. The door swung open and Jane was there, holding me in her arms as I stumbled out of the car. For a second I just let myself cry, hugging her to me, feeling relief wash through me, Jane's strong arms around me helping center me to her before she pulled back.

"Maura, Claudia's been hit, can you take a look at her" Instantly I felt calmer as the responsibility cut in, I nodded, turning to look for Claudia, before I turned back.

"I have set a tourniquet around Danny's thigh, keep it tight till I get back" She nodded and turned, climbing into the front seat, as I turned and looked round, seeing Claudia sitting back against the back of the vehicle, one leg of her pants soaked in blood.

Hurrying over, I dropped to one knee, lifting her head and looking into her eyes.

"Claudia, can you hear me?" She focused in on me and nodded, her voice shakey.

"Christ Maura, this hurts" I started to reach for her leg when I suddenly felt a presence next to me. Looking up I saw Tom Hafey and Julia Childs standing there, facing outwards, guns held ready, guarding us. I looked down at Claudia and grimaced.

"I am very sorry Claudia, but this suit is about to be ruined" She forced a shaky laugh; no doubt some of it was shock as she tried to reassure me, me!

"It's ok Doc, it came with a second pair of pants" I nodded, desperately trying to stay calm and focused.

"Very wise" Reaching down, I grabbed the material and started to tear the leg apart; the material was sodden with blood and resisted my efforts. There was a tap on my shoulder and I looked up to see Tom was proffering a small knife, hilt first. I nodded my thanks and took it, realising it was razor sharp. I carefully slit my way down Claudia's leg, slicing the material away, exposing the wound.

She had been clipped by a single bullet; it had passed through the outer edges of the thigh, messy and quite obviously very painful but not critical. Provided she got medical treatment soon she would be in no real danger and very likely to make a full and complete recovery. I carefully cut several strips from her pants leg and used it to bind the wound; hopefully it would staunch the bleeding. Leaning back I looked into her brown eyes, narrowed in pain.

"It is a clean wound Claudia, right through; bloody yes, but you will be fine" She nodded as I realised I could hear the sounds of nearby sirens and a helicopter approaching. I looked round to see Brenda and Sharon standing talking to John Hennessey. Forcing myself to my feet, I carefully handed the knife back to Tom and moved back to see Jane was still kneeling on the passenger seat of the car, holding the tourniquet tight. Walking over I tapped her shoulder and motioned to move out of the way, allowing me in to check on Danny once more. His vitals were elevated but not dangerously so, he needed to be extricated and transported to a hospital as soon as possible though. Seconds later the first Black and White arrived, officers stepping out with guns drawn as our group holstered theirs, Brenda and Sharon stepping forward to talk to them, badges in their hands.

As I sat there, checking the tourniquet, I saw more LAPD vehicles arrive, followed by the first ambulance. Turning, I saw Jane standing at the car's doorway.

"Jane, get the EMT's over here stat, tell them we have a possible arterial bleeding wound with significant blood loss" She stared at me for a second then took off at a sprint. I turned back to Danny. I don't know if he was awake to hear me or if was talking to myself.

"Help is here Danny, just hold on, hold on for me please"

**Jane**

I hated leaving Maura, but our people needed help, no way could I sit there while they fought for us.

Slamming the door shut, I dropped to one knee and peered around, my pistol held in both hands, seeing the Talisman guys crouched down behind cover looking around, one or two popping up and returning fire, Claudia was backed up against the SUV near me, looking round, gun pointed towards a group of several guys moving our way, many of them carrying assault rifles, those AK47 knock offs mostly.

I started to straighten up when a burst of gunfire from the other side of the Suburban nearly took my head off, slugs whizzing past me and slamming into the road. I could hear others ricocheting off the car's roof as I realised the shots were coming from above us.

"Careful" It was Claudia. "I think he's in the truck that hit us" I nodded and scrambled towards the rear of the SUV then popped up, my Glock swinging into line with the cab. I couldn't see anything, as I scanned back and forth, so I dropped back, staying standing up in this mess was an invitation to get shot.

Popping up again a few seconds later I saw the barrel of an assault rifle come into view through the open door of the truck, he must be crouched inside, popping up when he wanted to take a shot. I waited, my skin crawling, expecting a bullet in the back any second as I waited there until a head appeared. I wasn't sure of actually hitting him, all I could see was part of his head but he must have seen me as the gun swung my way so I took the shot, the head disappearing back inside, the spray of blood on the roof of the cab of the truck telling me I'd hit him.

I had no time to make sure as another burst of fire hit the car, reminding me I was horribly exposed, I dropped down, back against the car to find myself back next to Claudia.

"You get him?" I nodded in response, eyes scanning as she took a deep breath and spoke, her voice low and strained. "Right, let's get the hell out of here before we get hosed" I turned to look her in the eyes; she pointed towards a gap in between two parked cars, about fifteen feet away. "Ready?" I gathered myself up and leaned forward, ready to run.

"Yes" She nodded.

"Go!" We were up and running, heading for the gap, I was marginally faster, when a burst of shots rang out and with a scream Claudia dropped. I reached the gap between the cars then turned; she was lying out on the road, hands on her thigh as she writhed in pain. Gritting my teeth I holstered my Glock and frantically crawled on all fours towards her, grabbing her shoulders and dragging her back with me towards some kind of safety.

Another ganger popped up, looking our way, gun in hand swinging our way; we were too far out in the open to hide but two shots slammed him back and out of sight as I heard screaming. I don't know who'd taken the shots but they'd saved our lives.

I frantically dragged Claudia into cover, one pants leg turning crimson with blood. I didn't know enough first aid beyond standard CPR and the like, sure as hell not gunshot wounds. For that I needed Maura. Looking back at the SUV I could see the bullet holes in the bodywork, hopefully the armour had held. It suddenly dawned on me that the firing had died down, a final burst of automatic weapons fire, followed by two pistol shots, then quiet.

I waited a second then peeked up above the hood of the car I was backed against, but didn't see anyone hostile, some of the Talisman people were up and moving. Claudia's groan brought me back to what I had to do, so I ran over to our SUV and ducked down, peering inside. I saw Maura kneeling on the front seat and gave her thumbs up as she looked my way, getting a nod in return. Carefully I opened the door to find Maura cchecking the tighness of a belt wrapped around Danny's leg, she stepped back and out and I wrapped her in my arms, not saying anything, it was just perfect holding her close, she was safe and I was alive. Suddenly I realised we needed her.

"Maura, Claudia's been hit, can you take a look at her" Next thing I was holding Danny's tourniquet tight as Maura checked on Claudia as I desperately wondered how long it would take the paramedics to get here. The next few minutes flew by, Maura dealing with Claudia then taking over with Danny as I raced to get the first EMTs over to help her. Finally I managed to step back and take stock, looking round. I was standing over Maura as she briefed the medics on Danny's injuries, further away Brenda and Sharon were talking to the uniforms while the Talisman people were standing in a circle around the scene , looking outwards, nervous and alert. Turning, I saw Ana standing about twenty feet away, holding an obviously distraught Natalie in her arms as shudders racked through Nat's body.

Looking over the head buried in her neck Ana caught my eye and we exchanged a look, without words I knew exactly what she was thinking, I was thinking the same; '_someone's going to pay for this_'.

**Anastasia**

I was sitting in the back seat, just looking round, I wasn't familiar with this part of Los Angeles, down near the commercial docks as we made our way through late afternoon traffic to meet up with Aviva. Nat was still working on emails on her iPad so I was leaving her in peace when I spotted a concrete mixer truck come barreling through the cross street and straight into the side of the first car, the one carrying Maura and Jane.

The impact was pretty bad, what happened next was worse, as we slammed our brakes on another truck following behind us accelerated into the back of the last of our cars, Brenda and Sharon's. Their car was driven into ours, slamming us back into the seats and pushing our car into Jane and Maura's, the sound of airbags going off deafeningly loud inside the car, we were hemmed in and not going anywhere.

I was still processing Natalie's scream of terror as she tried to recover but I knew instantly what was happening, I'd been in a convoy attacked in Iraq with a similar pattern. I saw Tom Hafey and Kelly Phillips open the doors and roll outside to deal with whatever was coming, slamming the doors shut behind them, I just turned to Natalie and roughly shoved her down into the space between the front and rear seats, speaking quickly.

"Whatever happens Nat, stay here, don't look up, don't move, stay here, do you understand?" Her eyes were huge; she was clearly stunned and struggling to catch up.

"Ana…why, what's happening?" I chanced a quick glance around, seeing several gunmen approaching on both sides through the stopped traffic.

"Just stay down, we're under attack" I stared hard at her. "Don't move and try not to make a noise" I got a terrified stare as I pushed her further down, then drew my Glock and ducked out the door, just in time to hear her yelling after me.

I slammed the door behind me and dropped to one knee, to keep her safe there was only one thing to do, kill them before they killed us. I could feel the training I'd had as a bureau agent falling away, defaulting to a more primal training; I was seeing things now as a soldier, not a cop. I looked round and saw Tom was kneeling by the hood of a car that'd been stopped in the traffic jam caused by the accident, the driver wisely ducking out of the way as she saw a man with a gun right outside her windscreen.

Looking further around I saw several other Talisman people were ducking into cover as a few shots screamed over my head. I saw two guys moving our way, both holding automatic weapons; they were spraying pretty indiscriminately, not caring who might get in the way. There was screaming and the sound of shattered glass from windscreens and shop windows.

I ducked down further as bullets ripped into the body of the Suburban, I could hear Nat's screams of sheer terror from inside, hopefully she was hiding as far down on the floor as she could get as I let instinct take over, dropping flat onto the road and rolling into cover under the Suburban.

Under there I could see the feet of people moving around, allowing me to take stock. For a moment I missed my army body armor, my helmet and most of all my M16, it had real stopping power. I mentally shrugged and started looked round when I saw runner-clad feet moving towards the other side of a stopped car. I wasn't sure if it was a ganger or a civilian, until my brain kicked in as I realised no civilian runs **towards** a firefight.

I rolled onto my elbows and steadied myself, seeing whoever it was drop to one knee; I could hear the rattle of something that sounded like an AK from that direction as I steadied the Glock in both hands and squeezed a single shot off. The bullet tore through the knee joint, a black guy falling away, screaming in pain before rolling out of sight, leaving a dropped AK behind. I nodded in savage satisfaction, he wasn't going anywhere; with him neutralized I promptly forgot him, already scanning for another target.

Not seeing any I flipped back up to my knees and leaned back against the Suburban, scanning for anyone firing our way. I kept looking for another target as another round of bullets hit the other side of the Suburban, making it shiver. I didn't hear Nat, either she was beyond terrified or…

I gritted my teeth, I'd kill every last one of them and to hell with the consequences if she'd been hurt. Scanning the area I spotted a guy with an AK, ducked down behind a parked car; he was holding the AK up and spraying wildly towards our car. I could feel the vibration as the bullets hit the car above me, making me duck, joining Tom on the ground as we stayed low.

Looking around I saw Jane and Claudia crouched over running towards a group of cars when shots rang out, Jane rolling prone while Claudia went down, writhing in pain. I could feel the muscles in my jaw clenching, we were too exposed, too many directions to be shot from.

Another rattle of fire from the guy with the AK, before it suddenly stopped, the clack of a bolt hitting an empty chamber, he'd just emptied the magazine; without a thought I was sprinting in that direction towards the line of parked cars, crouched almost double, hopefully while his attention was diverted I could get close enough to take him out.

Scrabbling between the cars I gave a short prayer that he was facing the other way as I swung round and dropped to my knees, fists thrust out, pistol steady as the gunman turned his head, he must have seen the movement. For a second I took him in, young black guy, wearing a tattered jacket over a basketball shirt and jeans, hair cropped short, wispy mustache. I saw he had the AK in his hands as he slammed another mag in so without a second's remorse I pumped a shot into his torso, sending him tumbling. The cop I was said he was down; the soldier I'd always be sent the second shot into his head, killing him instantly, better safe than sorry.

I looked around, noticing there were at least a dozen civilians huddled in doorways or behind whatever cover they'd been able to find, with more looking out from shop windows, there were cell phones all held up, recording the action, I chanced a look round over the car I was crouched next to, to see a guy near the rear truck go down with a bullet in the shoulder, he started to get up when another sent him tumbling to the road screaming. I could see several others injured and at least two more dead judging by their injuries.

Seconds later I realised our remaining attackers were running, some of them wounded, judging by the labored movements. I wanted to go after them but there were too many civilians there, if I chased them and they shot back they'd hit bystanders. I cautiously stood, stepping over to the dead guy, kicking his gun under the car where it'd be out of reach, then looked around, more and more of our guys were standing up, cautiously taking stock, but the firing had stopped.

With a sigh, I felt the adrenaline rush start to wane, I knew the next thing would be the shakes as my mind started to get a handle on the fact I could have died in the last few…minutes? I looked down at my watch as I realised the whole thing had taken less than 90 seconds at most from start to finish though it'd felt like minutes, another effect of the adrenaline surge.

Holstering the Glock, I made my way back to the car, my steps speeding up as I saw just how many bullets had hit the Suburban, if any had got through… I broke into a sprint, getting to the car and wrenching the door open, to hear Natalie scream in sheer terror.

"Hey, it's me, we're okay, we're safe" In seconds I had an inconsolable blonde mass of shaking, crying, terrified partner huddled in my arms as I tried to calm her down, I don't know how long I stood there, just holding her as the tears streamed down her face, soaking into my shoulder. When I finally looked up I could see the first Black and White's had arrived and Brenda and Sharon talking to the cops as Jane looked my way.

**Natalie**

I'd been working through the day's backed up emails, I was running a little behind due to taking some 'me' time with Maura over a longer lunch. We'd headed off to Baco Mercat for their sensational Spanish-fusion mix, it'd been busy, but we'd arrived just before the full on rush, our protectors had winced a bit to find a table for six waiting for us, but Maura and I had been adamant, we weren't royalty, we didn't need people standing around us, instead we wanted to eat with people who we trusted and relied upon.

It had taken some persuading, but eventually Kelly and Steve and Maura's protectors Claudia and Roberto had sat down with us. They'd all politely refused a drink but Josef Centeno's amazing food was way too good for them to refuse. I'd really enjoyed the Lace Battered Squash Blossoms for a starter and the main of an El Pesco Baco flatbread sandwich, one of the place's signature dishes while Maura had happily devoured the Roasted Japanese Eggplant starter and a Fava Fritter Baco, all the while remaining perfectly poised and pristine while eating what really could be considered slightly messy finger food.

It may not have been fine dining but everyone had enjoyed the food and the spirited and cheerful chat over an hour spent just forgetting what was happening and why we had to be accompanied by four superlative bodyguards. They'd all been truly excellent company, even if I hadn't missed how their eyes had ceaselessly roamed the restaurant, seeking out danger; it had saddened me that it had come to this, but I'd consoled myself with the thought that it was only temporary, that we'd soon see the conspirators arrested and our life could return to normal.

None of that meant anything now though, the sudden, grinding crunch as our SUV had been hit from behind and savagely driven into the one in front of us as gunfire erupted all around had left me shaken and shocked.

I was still trying to process what had happened when Ana shoved me onto the floor of the SUV, screaming at me to stay down and stay quiet. I was just about to say something when she opened the door and rolled out, leaving me grasping after her, my despairing cry lost as the door slammed shut.

I was crammed on the floor, wondering what was going on, so I raised my head to look out when the glass window suddenly resounded to the deafening thudding of machine gun bullets hitting it, inches from my face. I fell backwards, screaming in terror, hearing more bullets hitting the car body.

I realised I was shaking uncontrollably, I'd never been as scared as I was right now, how could Ana go out there, what if she was killed? I hugged myself into a tiny ball; all I could think about was that she was going to die, that I'd lose her.

I realised I was panicking and frantically clenched my fists, to the point I could feel my nails cutting into my palms, the pain helping me focus. The sound of gunfire was deafening, the slower sound of pistols against the snarl of automatic weapons, the hail-like rattle of bullets on the Suburban, making the car shiver as they hit as I desperately tried not to scream. I kept focusing on breathing and that we'd be ok, that Ana and Jane and the Talisman people would save us, I had to believe that, I had to.

I was so busy trying to reassure myself that at first I didn't realise the shooting had slowed, then stopped, until the door opening scared the hell out of me. I screamed in stark terror until I realised it was Ana standing there, reaching for me.

I fell into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably. My body was weak and spent, like I'd run a marathon while I felt ashamed as I tried to pull it all together, all I'd done was cower while everyone else had been strong and brave. Ana's arms were round me, holding me tightly to her as I cried like a child. I could hear her voice, speaking to me, reassuring me, but the true reassurance came from her here, safe, her arms around me, safe and alive.

Finally I pulled back and ran my eyes over her, checking for injuries.

"You're not hurt are you, did you get hit?" She was dirty, her shoes were scuffed and her pants were grimy but she seemed ok, shaking her head.

"Yep, fine, not a scratch. We're safe now" She nodded past me and I turned to see ambulances and Black and White's pulled up, Sharon and Brenda talking to the uniforms, as EMT's ran a gurney towards one of the vehicles. I looked around and saw at least two dead bodies on the ground, neither one anyone I knew.

"Is everyone safe? What about Maura and Jane?" Ana looked round then nodded.

"Yep, there they are over there" I turned to see Jane standing near their wrecked SUV, while Maura was standing in quick conversation with the EMT. As I did I saw Claudia lying back against an SUV, blood soaking her leg, as fear ran through me.

"Oh god, Claudia"

**Brenda**

I could feel my brain rattling round in my head for a few seconds after the impact before I dimly became aware we were being shot at. The Suburban's body was vibrating with the impact of bullets hitting the sides, on instinct I ducked down, dragging Sharon with me or maybe she was pulling me down. I realised I had a phone and my Glock in the bag, grabbing both, before doing the smart thing and dialing 911.

"This is Deputy Chief Johnson" I rattled off my badge number. "We are under fire at the corner of…" I turned to Sharon. "Where the hell are we?" She looked across at me blankly for a second, before popping her head up and taking a quick look round, then dropping back and turning to me.

"West 10th and South Pacific, San Pedro" I repeated the info into the phone.

"We're in San Pedro, at West 10th and South Pacific, we need backup now" The reassuring voice at the other end helped calm me.

'_Understood Chief, we have units responding and 911 reports coming in_' I risked popping my head up for a look; I could see more cracks starting to appear in the windows from the impacts. The rear window was already badly cracked, probably from the truck hitting us and I could see multiple people moving round with automatic weapons.

"Dispatch, be advised there are multiple heavily armed attackers at my location, could be ten or more"

'_Roger Chief, we have ground and air units inbound to your location_' I went to say something when a hail of bullets hit the cracked rear window, the damaged armor glass giving way and shattering, spraying glass shards everywhere. I pulled myself down as the sound of the firing suddenly rose, no longer blocked by the windows. Looking round I suddenly realised we were alone in the car; both Dennis Hennessey and Julia Childs were gone.

"Where's everyone?" Sharon looked up at me, her eyes wide in fear, not that I was any better.

"Outside, trying to fight them off" I felt my jaw tighten. God damn it, more people at risk because of those bastards, I swore if I got out of this alive I was going to personally arrest Powell and Kennedy at the point of my gun.

I scootched over to the side of the seat, then popped my head up, gun at the ready, not seeing too much through the hole where the rear window had been. I saw movement peripherally out the side windows; some of the Talisman people ducking into cover or lying prone, some shooting, others looking round.

Movement in front of me caught my attention; out through the shattered rear window; someone was shooting at one of the Talisman people from behind the truck that had rammed us. All I could see was his shoulder, part of his arm and head and the Uzi he was waving round.

I rose to my knees on the seat, leaning against the seat back and lining up on him with both hands clutching my pistol as I tried to stop the tremors, it wasn't the easiest of shots but I couldn't let people die out there because of us; my first shot missed, the second didn't.

The guy spun to the ground, I'd hit his shoulder, I could clearly see the growing blood stain on his shirt, he should have stayed down but he went to grab the Uzi where he'd dropped it.

I gritted my teeth and went to shoot again when a single shot right next to me left me with a ringing ear, Sharon's shot tearing through his lower torso, leaving him sprawled on the ground screaming. I turned to look at Sharon but incredibly, she just shrugged, her voice trying for lightness and mostly failing.

"Typical, leaving me to clean up after you" I don't know how the hell she'd done it, here we were under fire and she was making jokes? God damn the woman. I somehow forced a smile; heaven knows where it came from or what it looked like though.

"Had to leave you with something to do" I suddenly noticed that the firing was dying down, how long we'd been there I didn't know as I noticed that the phone was squawking at me from where I'd dropped it. Grabbing it off the seat I realised I'd left Dispatch hanging.

'_Chief Johnson, are you there, please respond_''

"Yeah, I'm here"

'_Chief, what's your situation?_' I looked round. The volume of fire was petering out, I could see at least three sprawled bodies in direct view, two of them screaming, both gangers, another was definitely dead, half his face was missing.

I also saw one of Talisman's people, Claudia, sitting back against a car, face pale, hands on her leg where blood was staining her slacks. I felt my guts tighten.

"We have multiple wounded at my location, we need ambulances and lots of backup. Suspects seem to be fleeing on foot, advise all units approaching to be cautious, suspects are heavily armed with automatic weapons

'_Roger Chief, be advised nearest responding units are 30 seconds away, Air 7 ETA is 1 minute. Ambulances are on their way_'

"Thank you Dispatch" Sharon turned to me.

"Tell them we have armed people here who are friendlies" I nodded, last thing we needed was a blue-on-blue shooting.

"Dispatch, advise all units that we have plain-clothed personnel on the ground who are armed, proceed with caution"

'_Roger Chief_' I let the phone drop, looking at Sharon, as I started to shake, the adrenalin washing out of me, leaving me weak as a kitten. I went to say something when there was a tap on the door window, causing me to scream and spin; my weapon swinging up as Sharon's did the same. I sagged as I saw it was Dennis Hennessey, he held both hands up and stepped back. I let the gun drop and opened the door, stepping out only to find my legs weren't all that steady, leaving me sagging against the pock-marked body of the Suburban.

Sharon followed me out and stood there next to me, leaning against the car as I looked Hennessey over, he seemed unhurt.

"Ambulances and Black and Whites are on their way" He nodded. "Is everyone ok?" He shook his head, tension evident in his face.

"Claudia's hit and Danny's trapped in the wreckage Marm" I nodded and looked around the scene, I realised the Suburban we were in was a wreck, riddled with bullet holes, thank god for the armor. I saw several more bodies sprawled out. I shook my head, still trying to deal with it all. Looking round again I could see people watching from where they were hiding in shops and offices, in cars up the street, plenty of people with phones out filming everything, we'd be YouTube sensations in minutes.

Sharon looked round then shook her head.

"We have backup almost here, might be a good idea to get your people to put their guns away before they get here" He nodded and turned, walking away as he marshaled his people. I looked up at Sharon, to see her looking at me, desperately trying to hold it together, the same as me as I spoke.

"Oh god sweetie, not again" She nodded, looking round the scene, the screaming of approaching sirens a counterpoint to the screams of some of the wounded, then looked back, the cold fire in her eyes burning, her voice carrying the same cold certainty.

"Never again, this has to end" I looked round then back at her, seeing the resolve and anger I felt reflected in her eyes and nodded.

"Yeah, it ends now"

**Sharon**

I stood there for a moment, feeling the shakes and the weakness in my legs, before I tried to walk towards the first Black and White. I reached down and unclipped my badge from my belt and held it up as both unformed cops swung pistols my way.

"Commander Raydor, FID" Brenda was right behind me.

"Deputy Chief Johnson, Major Crimes" For a few seconds they stared at us both, then lowered their weapons. I pointed the way some of our attackers had gone, up West 10th.

"At least three or four attackers fled that way, another couple in that direction" I turned and pointed down South Pacific. "Advise all units that suspects are well armed and dangerous and some of them are wounded" They nodded and one grabbed his radio and started calling it in as another unit arrived, then another, followed by an ambulance. I turned to look at Brenda and saw the look in her eyes, matching mine; somehow we'd survived again. She went to say something when the roar of a low flying helicopter announced the arrival of Air 7, he was barely 50 feet above the rooftops, circling, looking for the attackers.

"Jesus Chief, what the hell happened here?" I turned back to see a sergeant standing there, looking at Brenda. She looked round and shrugged.

"They tried to ambush us, rammed the first car, then another truck hit us from behind, jamming us up tight here. There must have been a dozen or more of them, turned into a firefight, I don't know how bad the casualties are yet" I looked round, seeing an EMT dealing with the one we'd shot, at least two more attackers were visible on the road, dead. Another ambulance was pulling up, with Jane pointing towards where Claudia was sitting back against a car, her leg covered in blood,

I could see Maura kneeling in the front seat of their SUV; obviously someone had been hurt there as well. I sagged a bit; this was going to be a nightmare to clean up, not helped that I couldn't be involved in the investigation. It suddenly hit me that this was worse than I thought, in addition to the Officer Involved Shooting investigation; we had Talisman's civilians shooting the attackers, plus possibly a federal agent as well. The inter-agency headache from this was going to be monumental.

I thought about it for a moment than turned to Brenda, who was giving a preliminary statement to the Sergeant. She saw me turn to her and paused, tilting her head at me in question as I sighed then gave voice to my thoughts.

"Let me call Reynolds from the Gang Task Force, we need someone senior we can trust to lead the investigation" Brenda nodded for a moment, as we stood there looking round. I saw several Talisman people lifting Claudia onto a gurney which was then wheeled towards an ambulance. Another ambulance arrived, followed by another Black and White, the place was getting busy.

A few minutes later, after a quick call to Reynolds and another to Elliot, I turned to see the uniforms were sealing off the area, securing the discarded weapons, taking statements from witnesses and photographing the scene, all the usual after a major event. Brenda was leaning against a parked car finishing a call to her squad, John Hennessey standing nearby, keeping watch. As I turned I realised Julia Childs was standing close, one hand resting on her pistol as she scanned the area. She looked over at me and pulled a face as she spoke.

"Don't suppose we could convince you to get the hell away from here to somewhere safe, like the boat?" I shook my head, I had statements to give and we'd need to walk through the scene with Elliot and Reynolds. No, we were going to be here for a while.

"Not for a while, sorry" She shrugged, her voice resigned.

"I was afraid you'd say something like that. That's what we get for protecting people who have real jobs" I looked at her for a moment and she sketched a smile. "Most of the people we normally protect, if they'd been in something like this, they'd be hiding somewhere, well on their way to getting blind drunk" I smiled, a little ruefully.

"While I'm not ruling that out later, right now I have a job to do" She pulled another face and spoke.

"There, see what I mean?" We swapped a weak smile, before I headed off to talk to Brenda. As I walked up she looked round, seeing me, her smile lighting up the late afternoon, I couldn't help it, seeing that smile made everything a little better, we'd survived once more.

"Hey you" Her smile if anything got wider as she replied.

"Hey you back" We stood there for a moment, before I turned and leaned against the car next to her close enough to bump shoulders as we watched LAFD paramedics working to free Danny, before I asked the question I dreaded.

"What's the final tally?" Brenda sobered instantly, her voice full of sadness.

"Danny has a badly broken leg and some pretty bad blood loss; they're giving him a transfusion now while they cut him out of the car. Claudia had a bullet go through her thigh and is on her way to the hospital but Maura says she should be ok given time. Two others took hits in their vests but they'll be fine apart from some pretty nasty bruising" She took a breath. "Five dead attackers, plus four more wounded who didn't get away, the one we shot's probably not going to make it, apparently we hit his spleen and he'd almost bled out by the time the EMT's got to him" I looked down, Brenda had used 'we' but it had really been my shot. If he didn't make it I'd be his killer. Normally that would have hit me hard, but they'd been the one's who'd attacked us, it'd been their choice. "Sweetie?" It was Brenda's voice, low and full of care. "It wasn't your fault, we were defending ourselves" I shrugged

"The investigation will find I fired the fatal shot Brenda" At my words she grimaced, then spoke, her voice low.

"I wish you'd have let me take the shot, that I'd been faster, that way you wouldn't be involved" I stared at her.

"You would've killed him just to stop me doing it?"

"Course" She shrugged nonchalantly. "Not my first OIS, so I've nothing to lose, specially if it meant you were in the clear" I felt a lump in my throat as what she was saying sunk in. It took me a few goes before I could get the words out.

"Oh god Brenda, I don't know what to say... " She smiled tiredly, keeping her voice low.

"You can thank me later sweetie, when we finally get out of here" I smiled and leaned a little closer.

"I think the shower might be getting another workout tonight" The quick smile that suddenly flashed told me everything I needed to know, we were going to be okay, eventually.


	78. Chapter 78

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**78 Arrests**

Natalie's viewpoint

It was getting late as we found ourselves sitting in the Major Crimes conference room, packed with the combined teams from Force Investigation and Major Crimes plus our protectors, it made it a very tight fit, quietly humming with low voiced conversations around and across the table.

Brenda and Sharon were sitting at opposite ends of the table with their teams arrayed around them while I was sitting at the mid-point between both teams, flanked by Lucy Kwang and Julio Sanchez, with Ana standing right behind me. Maura was opposite, flanked by Mark Rosenberg and Andrea Hobbs, with Jane standing protectively over her.

"Enough is enough, people" It was Brenda, stilling the conversations and getting us started. "We have two of our people in hospital, five gangers decorating Doctor Isle's slabs, four more in hospital under guard plus three more in lock up. This is the third time someone's gone after us and I want it stopped"

There we're nods all-round the room at that, everyone was still processing what had happened; once again both teams had been called back into work. Well some had, others had seen what had happened splashed across every media out let and recognised us from the footage and they'd already been on their way in when they'd got the call.

The Gang Task force's Commander Reynolds had taken charge of the crime scene, he'd arrived after a call from Sharon, taken one look at the scene and called in a large chunk of his team; they were now doing the job normally done by FID, assisted by a small team from the Bureau who'd arrived after a call from Ana. I'd overheard a casual comment from Lucy Kwang to Kevin Elliot about the officers in the Task Force getting to see life from the other side of the OIS fence, drawing a quietly sardonic smile from both of them.

We'd finally been let go from the scene after almost two hours of walking Reynolds' people plus the three Bureau investigators through the scene, before making our way back to the Parker Centre in a convoy of replacement SUV's Dennis Hennessey had arranged while he had headed for the hospital to check on his wounded people.

Brenda turned to Andrea, who was looking more than a little shocked at the way the night had turned out; she'd got the call from Brenda who'd told her to get down to headquarters as soon as she could and to make sure Mikki was with her at all times. Mikki Mendoza was right there now, leaning against the wall behind Andrea, looking pretty damned worried as well she might; Andrea was now intimately involved in a case that could get her killed, after all what was one more woman's death when they'd tried to kill us three times now? Brenda didn't mince words.

"Andrea, we have enough to take Kennedy and probably Powell down, correct?" Andrea leaned forward to look down the table at her as she answered.

"Yes, definitely Kennedy, the recording is enough to ensure a conviction, at least on the first attempt using the cartel hit men, Powell not so much though, just on the conspiracy charge. We still haven't enough to tie him and Kennedy to the remaining attacks though" Brenda's response was immediate, her voice hard.

"That's enough for me. I want no more people hurt, no more attacks, I want it stopped and them off the streets" There were nods and quiet agreement voiced throughout the room before Brenda looked back at Andrea. "What about the others? Can we get them too?" Andrea looked a little uncertain.

"You have enough to bring them in on the conspiracy charge on suspicion, at least enough to interrogate them but nothing we have so far is enough to guarantee a conviction beyond the initial conspiracy" Brenda was about to speak when Andrea kept going. "I will point out that we don't have anything to tie either Humphries or Farrar in, they weren't part of the initial discussion where they agreed to have the cartel kill you. All we have really on Humphries is that she was part of the group that met in the mall recently and her lawyer could spin that any number of innocent ways, and to be honest we don't even have that with Farrar" Brenda nodded.

"It's enough for us to pull them in though, get them across an interrogation room and make them sweat" I nodded as well; I wanted to watch those interrogations too, to see them try and explain themselves, see them somehow try and justify getting us killed. Brenda glanced up the table at Sharon, who leaned forward and spoke.

"We want search warrants for the houses of all of our suspects, plus their cars, computers, phones, everything" Andrea nodded. "As soon as humanly possible please" Andrea nodded once.

"Of course" She rose from her seat. "I'll go wake up a judge" With that she headed for the door, trailed by Mikki. Brenda nodded, calling after her.

"Thank you" Glancing round the table she continued. "Now everyone, we'll need to…" Brenda broke off as Dennis Hennessey passed Andrea on his way into the room. "Mister Hennessey, do you have an update please on Danny and Claudia?" Dennis nodded, he looked tired, hardly surprising really after all that had happened.

"Claudia's had a few stitches but she'll be heading home shortly, she'll be stiff and sore and sorry and definitely favouring that leg for a while but she'll be fine marm. The doctors say she should be good as new with plenty of rest and some good physio" There was an outbreak of smiles, finally some good news though I noticed Brenda frowning, like me she'd realised he hadn't mentioned Danny Howell yet.

"And Danny, how is he doing?" Hennessy frowned.

"I'm rather afraid that's another story marm, multiple breaks and a lot of lacerations, he'll recover but it'll take some time and quite a bit of rehab" He looked over at Maura. "According to the doctors, his prognosis is reasonably positive thanks to some extremely good treatment at the scene" He looked over and nodded respectfully at Maura as the other Talisman people in the room did the same. "Thank you Doctor" Maura blushed at the attention before speaking up quietly.

"As a medical professional, I simply did what I was trained to do" Hennessey shook his head.

"In the middle of an ambush marm, under fire, that's a bloody sight more than most could or would. Thank you" Maura nodded and looked down, clearly embarrassed by the attention, especially for what she saw as doing her job, as Jane's hands came to rest reassuringly on Maura's shoulders, giving them a gentle squeeze. I smiled, proud as hell of her, Maura may come across as all soft and lovely, but there was steel under that silk, she'd come through when needed, like always. Unlike me, I'd cowered in fear the whole time, useless.

Hennessey looked back at Brenda. "Chief Johnson, Carl is on his way back to LA, he was in New York when he got word. I should give you fair warning, he's not at all a happy man marm" I nodded, we all did; Talisman's people were a hell of a lot more to Carl Waters than just his employees, two of his people wounded on a job? I'd be willing to bet he was seriously angry. Brenda nodded slowly.

"I completely understand Mister Hennessey; when you next speak to him, please convey my heartfelt sympathies deepest apologies for Claudia and Danny's injuries. Naturally I'll speak to him as soon as he gets here" He nodded and took up a place against the wall of the conference room behind Brenda, next to her other bodyguard, Colin Lee. Meanwhile Sharon leaned forward and spoke.

"So, we're agreed, we need to take them down" There was general agreement throughout the room, no arguments there. Brenda tapped the table, drawing our attention back to her.

"Once we have warrants I want all six of them taken down, seperately if possible, they're less likely to give us grief if they're not together" There were nods all round at that, people are usually braver in groups. "I also don't want them talking to each other before Commander Raydor and I get to them" She looked round at the assembled teams.

"I want surveillance on each of them, from their house all the way into work, we'll pick them up as they arrive" Jane nodded and spoke up.

"Who takes them down" Andy looked round and up at her, surprise in his voice.

"We do, who else?" Jane shrugged.

"Just checking, it started out as a FID investigation after all" Sharon looked up.

"It may have, but it's a joint case now" She paused for a moment then looked at Andy. "You know, I think you're exactly right Lieutenant; we should do the arrests" I saw a look pass between Brenda and Sharon, a question in Brenda's eyes. Sharon smiled as her eyes flicked across Maura and I. "WE should do the arrests"

I didn't miss the emphasis, neither did anyone else. Brenda took in Ana and me, her eyes then moving to where Maura sat, with Jane standing behind her, as a wide smile broke out.

"An excellent idea Commander"

**The following morning**

"You okay Natalie?" I managed a smile at Kelly Phillips, my senior protector, trying to reassure her though honestly I don't know how successful I was. I was almost shaking; I'd never done anything like this before and I was scared, something the others had picked up on. She nodded and smiled confidently.

"Nothing's going to happen, Detective Mendoza, Steve and I will make sure of it"

I looked round, seeing the reassuring smiles from Mikki, Kelly and Steve. Kelly was ex-State Department Diplomatic Protection Group while Steve Jensen was a former member of the UK Special Boat Service. When I'd asked him if that meant he sailed boats he'd smiled politely and told me it meant he blew them up. Silly me, whatever was I thinking?

We were sitting in the foyer of LAPD headquarters, waiting for our target, trying to look like we belonged here. We were running on only a few hours' sleep, we'd made our way to Aviva after midnight, grabbed four hours not-terribly restful sleep in each other's arms before making our way back into work in time to get set up. Now we were sipping coffee and carrying on a conversation, trying to look like we were having a meeting in case anyone was suspicious, after all a uniformed officer working down here had tipped off potential assassins before.

Brenda and Sharon had suggested that Maura and I should take part in taking them down, that by doing so we would get some much needed closure, a chance to take back some of what they'd taken from us. While Jane and Ana had initially supported the idea, their enthusiasm had cooled a whole lot when they'd been told they wouldn't be with us when the arrest were made, that they'd be making their own arrests.

The assignment of Mikki with me and Lucy Kwang with Maura plus our assigned protectors had only barely mollified them, quite obviously they didn't really trust anyone else to protect us like they could, but in the end they had, with a bare semblance of good grace, reluctantly acquiesced, mostly as they didn't really have a choice, leaving me here waiting and worrying.

Mikki's phone rang, it was Mark Rosenberg, one of Sharon's people; he had followed Tony Di Marco from home and was calling to let us know he was approaching the building; she finished the call and looked around at us.

"Ok people, show time" We nodded and kept up our charade as we waited, sure enough he walked through the doors as we stood and wandered over to a trash can to dump our coffee cups, buying time as we waited for Di Marco to scan his pass and move through the electronic gates towards the elevator, letting him pass while we dropped in behind him as I chatted with Mikki about the arrest rate for SIS.

Di Marco turned to look at me, his eyes lingering for a moment then flicking over Kelly and Steve before he turned away. I had no idea what he was thinking, was he wondering how I was still alive? Did he even know there had been an attempt on our lives last night or had Kennedy arranged that and kept him in the dark? Maybe he was just so cold that he could look at a woman he'd wanted killed and show absolutely no emotion.

With a ding the doors to an elevator opened and Di Marco walked in with us right behind him. Steve held up his hand and stopped two other people from entering with a muttered 'sorry'. I could see the annoyed looks on their faces as the door closed. Di Marco saw it and frowned as he pushed the button for Robbery Homicide's floor, while I pushed the button for Major Crimes. Taking a deep breath I turned to face him and spoke up.

"It's Lieutenant Di Marco isn't it?" he looked at me and nodded.

"Yeah, that's me" I waited but he didn't say anymore, forcing me to carry on.

"I'm Natalie Dearing, the Department's media manager" He ran his eyes over me.

"I've heard of you" I forced a smile as Kelly and Steve moved carefully back in the elevator to flank him while he was looking at me as I kept the conversation going.

"Oh good, that makes it so much easier" I nodded at Mikki. "This is Detective Mendoza from SIS" Di Marco glanced over at her as I pressed on. "She's here to help me place you in custody after I make a citizen's arrest" His head jerked back to me as I recited the first words.

"Tony Di Marco, you are under arrest for attempted murder, criminal conspiracy to commit murder and a number of lesser crimes" I took a breath as he stared at me. "You have the right to remain silent…" I saw his hand flex and for a moment thought he was going to do something really silly, but Kelly and Steve grabbed his arms and held them as Mikki reached in and retrieved his weapon. Di Marco tried to bluster but it sounded weak even to my ears.

"What the fuck is this, some kind of joke?" I resolutely kept going, reciting the Miranda Rights warning I'd memorized from watching so many cop shows over the years, refreshed by reading them again this morning.

"Anything you say or do may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. You are now under arrest" I could see the dawning realization on his face that we were serious and that we knew. "Do you understand each of these rights I have explained to you Mister Di Marco?" His head swung from Steve to Kelly and back as he tried to shrug them off, to no avail as I spoke again. "I asked if you understand these rights Mister Di Marco?" Mikki was obviously getting annoyed.

"Don't play dumb Di Marco, you know the Miranda as well as I do, answer the damned question" He stared at her before finally nodding.

"Yeah, yeah whatever" Di Marco was quickly cuffed as Kelly spoke to Mikki.

"We should search him, in case he's carrying any other weapons, we wouldn't want any incidents" Mikki nodded and stepped back as Steve and Kelly quickly frisked him. They were feeling down his legs when Kelly spoke sharply.

"Gun! In an ankle holster" She jerked up Di Marco's pants leg, revealing a small pistol strapped to his leg, which she retrieved as Di Marco stared ahead emotionlessly, revealing nothing.

"Not the only thing either" It was Steve. Pulling up the other leg he revealed a flick knife in a small sheath strapped just above the other ankle, pulling it out and holding it up, he pushed a button as the blade snapped into position. "Nice little toy" Again Di Marco was impassive, maybe it was starting to sink in, maybe he was in shock, god I hoped so.

They handed both items over to Mikki who stood there watching Di Marco as the elevator stopped at Robbery / Homicide's floor, I pushed at the door close button a few times until they slid shut. At the finality of that gesture sank in Di Marco suddenly deflated; obviously the reality had set in, making me suddenly relieved, weren't the villains supposed to be remorseful and upset when unmasked? I stared at the man as the lift kicked into motion once more, I'd never knowingly been this close to a murderer before and I was still struggling to comprehend him, to understand his motivation. I couldn't stay quiet, the need to know forcing me to speak.

"Why, why'd you do it? You're a police officer, you're supposed to save lives, not take them…" He just looked at me and opened his mouth, then shut it, shaking his head.

"Don't worry Natalie" It was Mikki. "Di Marco here's going to have plenty of time to contemplate his sins while he's sitting on death row" Di Marco's head jerked up at that and he went to say something, before closing his mouth again, obviously he'd decided saying nothing was safer. Mikki though wasn't finished.

"That's right, death row. You conspired in the attempted murder of six law enforcement members, plus six employees of Talisman Protective Services, including Steve and Kelly here. You're going down for this" Di Marco shook his head, a touch of bluster in his voice.

"It ain't gonna happen Mendoza, no way" Mikki was unimpressed, the tone of her voice was laced with pure contempt.

"Oh it's gonna happen all right, my partner's going to prosecute you personally Di Marco, you and the rest of your rotten pals and we'll be there to watch you go away for the rest of your life, or at least what's left of it until California starts executing scum like you again" The doors opened on our floor and we stepped out, Mikki took Di Marco's arm and steered him into Major Crimes' area where Michael Tao met us, pointing us in the direction of the conference room.

"Stick him in there for the moment, both interrogation rooms are busy, Powell's in one and Osmond's in the other. We didn't miss the jerk as Di Marco's head lifted at the names, just as Brenda and Sharon had planned. Mikki nodded and they walked him that way, I watched as he was led away, at movement beside me I turned to find myself standing next to Brenda, I hadn't heard her come up, before she turned to me and spoke.

"How did it go?" I pushed a smile up; in truth I'd been scared.

"He didn't resist, which is a good thing I guess" She quirked an eyebrow at me.

"You guess?" I shook my head as I explained.

"I didn't want trouble, but at the same time, I wanted him to show something, remorse maybe, I don't know; something to show he knew he'd done something wrong" She smiled a little sadly.

"That might require rather more of conscience than he seems to possess" I was about to reply when there was a bustle from behind me as Julia Humphries was led in by Lucy Kwang, with Maura following, flanked by her protectors Roberto Mapagu and Bill Harakaia, who'd stepped in to sub for the injured Claudia at short notice.

Humphries was tall and slim with a runners build, shoulder-length straight blonde hair in a page boy cut, she could have been really attractive but there was coldness, a hard harshness there that undercut her looks. We watched as she was led into a spare office as Maura came to a stop next to me.

"Good morning Chief Johnson, Natalie" We both nodded, our eyes following Amy and Humphries as I noted Humphries had her hands handcuffed behind her back and she looked a little disheveled. Brenda's eyebrow lifted in question.

"Problems?" Maura smiled in return and spoke.

"Detective Humphries was somewhat less than completely cooperative, fortunately with Detective Kwang's help plus Roberto and Bill here, she was unable to do any damage" I nodded as Brenda smiled, a little nastily.

"Well, we can add resisting arrest to what's going to be a very long docket" We both nodded as we watched Humphries pushed into a chair where Lucy looped her cuffs through the chair, ensuring she'd go nowhere, there to wait until we got around to her.

"And how was your first arrest Maura?" Maura turned at Brenda's question, a trace of a smile on her lips.

"It went well thank you. What would normally be a significantly stressful experience was countered by the reassuring presence of Detective Kwang, Roberto and Bill" I nodded, having Steve, Kelley and Mikki there had been the only way I'd been able to stay calm in the presence of someone who'd agreed to have me killed, have all of us killed. Brenda nodded easily, her smile breaking out.

"Well if I need additional detectives I know where to come" Her smile widened at our evident blushes, before she turned to look back at Humphries. "Jane should be in soon with Farrar then we can start getting to the bottom of this mess" I nodded slowly; I wanted to hear what they had to say. Brenda turned back to us and frowned, then spoke. "Kennedy unfortunately appears to have flown the coop, when surveillance arrived this morning Kennedy's car was missing. I authorised them to raid the house, they found Kennedy's girlfriend there but she knew nothing, Kennedy had told her he'd been called in to work and left" She shrugged. "Needless to say there was no call in and no sign of him" I exchanged a glance with Maura before asking.

"What tipped him off, seeing the ambush on the news maybe?" Brenda nodded.

"The girlfriend confirms that Kennedy saw that on the late night news, right before he packed up and vanished" Maura frowned.

"There is no indication where he might have gone?" Brenda nodded.

"We found his car parked at LAX, Sharon headed out there and after talking to the TSA and checking their CCTV footage, she identified him boarding a Singapore Airlines flight using a fake passport" I frowned, '_damn, he was going to get away_'. I turned to look at Brenda and asked.

"Can we get him arrested when he lands?" Maura jumped in.

"I believe that Singapore does have an extradition treaty with the United States" Brenda nodded confidently, that confidence coming through in her voice.

"That they do, but we won't need it" A light came on inside my head, I swung to look at Brenda.

"You got the aircraft to turn back, didn't you?" She smiled happily.

"The Singapore Government was very cooperative, they really don't like cop killers and given the government owns the airline, Singapore Airlines were more than willing to turn the plane around and head back" She checked her watch, a little theatrically, then continued. "They landed a little over forty minutes ago and Sharon was the first on board; she's on her way in with Kennedy right now" Maura smiled.

"That is excellent news, it would have been most unfortunate if Sergeant Kennedy had eluded custody" Brenda shook her head, satisfaction easily heard in her voice.

"No chance of that, he's going away for life" She looked from Maura to me and back. "They all will" We nodded as I pursed my lips, thinking back to Di Marco, his lack of remorse. Brenda must have picked up on it as she looked to me.

"What's the matter Nat?",

"Just trying to understand them, How they can be so indifferent" She regarded me for a moment and then spoke.

"How do you feel about that Natalie?" I shook my head, trying to put my thoughts into words.

"I don't know Brenda, I don't understand him, why would a police officer turn murderer, did the oath mean so little to him? Why, why us, why'd he do it?" I realised I was babbling and closed my mouth tight as Brenda slowly nodded.

"I don't know, not yet, but I will" She looked back at me and smiled a little. "So how was your first arrest?" I looked down, examining my feelings, looking up to see her still looking at me.

"I was scared, afraid something would go wrong, but when I saw the look in his eyes when he realised we were serious, he must have known we knew, it's like he just collapsed inwardly. I don't know…" I realised I was rambling again, stopped and took a breath while I collected my thoughts. I turned to look her in the eyes.

"It felt good Brenda, to be in control this time, to not be the target, or the victim"


	79. Chapter 79

The usual disclaimers apply, I don't own any of these characters, the television programs they appear in or the intellectual property inherent in them, I'm just playing in the sandbox. Thanks for letting us have our wicked way with them, if only figuratively, for a little while.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**79 Post arrests**

Maura's viewpoint

Brenda, Natalie and I were standing there, looking over to the room where Julia Humphries was being detained by Detective Kwang when the space was filled with an overly loud voice, making me start slightly in surprise.

"What the hell is going on in here?!" I turned, to see a red-faced Commander Taylor standing there in the doorway to Major Crimes' squad room, hands on hips, jaw thrust forward combatively as he stared balefully at us, well Brenda in particular, hostility radiating off him. Naturally not everyone was intimidated, Brenda least of all.

"Why Commander Taylor, this is a unexpected but pleasant surprise" Brenda's voice practically oozed syrupy good cheer. "May I say it's so very good of you to join us" Commander Taylor was demonstrably unimpressed, his voice full of barely-repressed anger.

"I just heard that you've arrested some of my squad, what the hell do you think you're doing Johnson?" Before Brenda could reply Sharon's voice interjected from behind him.

"Closing my outstanding OIS case actually, please stand aside Commander, you're blocking the door" Taylor turned to see Sharon leading a casually-dressed Detective Sergeant Kennedy by the arm, his hands cuffed behind him, quite obviously he too had also been less than cooperative. She was accompanied by her assigned Talisman protectors Julia Childs and Klause Hauser, their appearance seemingly giving Commander Taylor pause. He took in Sergeant Kennedy's appearance and scowled but had not moved, drawing an exasperated response from Sharon. "Please move out of the way Commander" Brenda spoke up, annoyance making an appearance in her tone.

"You were asked to move Commander, please be good enough to do so" Commander Taylor looked as if he was going to stand his ground, drawing a frown from Brenda before finally stepping to one side though he did so with remarkably poor grace, scowling darkly around the room as Sharon's group passed him by before calling out after Sergeant Kennedy.

"I don't know what the hell's going on here but I'll get you out of here, all of you" Natalie and I regarded him as he spoke, awaiting a response; it did not take long.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that Commander" It was Brenda. "Your officers are being charged with criminal conspiracy to commit murder, plus I expect to hang actual murder charges on them as well" Taylor's jaw dropped for a moment, before he visibly recovered, his face reddening quickly.

"Bull-fucking-shit" It was obvious from both his tone and the colour of his face that Commander Taylor was livid. "This is a fucking joke" Sharon handed Sergeant Kennedy across to Julio Sanchez then walking back in to watch as Brenda sparred with Taylor before interjecting.

"Don't be so sure about that Commander, you don't have all the facts" Commander Taylor was unrepentent.

"All I need to know is this is another vendetta against me and my people from you vindictive bitches" Sharon spoke quietly as was her won't, but her tone was sharp.

"I would suggest you moderate both your words and tone Commander, the evidence is quite conclusive and I for one am looking forward to these officers spending the rest of their miserable lives rotting behind bars" The Commander's response was automatic denial.

"This is some kind of bullshit frame up" Brenda smiled; she was obviously enjoying the opportunity to see the Commander placed in an untenable position as Sharon continued.

"Then why exactly was I forced to arrest Detective Sergeant Kennedy at LAX having boarded a Singapore Airlines flight while in possession of a ticket to Singapore and a passport, both of which were in a false name?" Caught off guard the Commander was left dumbfounded.

"What?" Sharon raised a single eyebrow as she pressed the point.

"Did you authorise his leave Commander?" Obviously surprised and confused Commander Taylor was defensive.

"I knew nothing about anything like that" Brenda nodded once, satisfaction in her tone.

"That would seem painfully obvious, it is apparent that you knew nothing about this or anything else, so why don't you take yourself and your embarassing ignorance somewhere else to brood and leave the real work to us" The Commander obviously didn't know when enough was enough, rounding on Brenda.

"So god damned full of yourself aren't you, well after the union hears about this I'll have your job, all your jobs for this" Brenda was neither repentant nor cowed, in fact she seemed to be enjoying the Commander's predicament and protestations.

"I don't think so Commander; after all it's not my squad members that are going to face trial for murder" I couldn't help myself, inserting myself into the conversation.

"I suspect you should look to your own position Commander" His head swung towards me, for a moment as I contemplated his complexion I considered putting in a preemptive call to the EMTs, given he was turning a most concerning shade of purple.

"What the fuck are you talking about" I stood there, forcing myself to remain impassive in the face of the hostility radiating off him in waves as I replied.

"Given six detectives from your division are likely to be charged with a minimum of seven counts of murder and at least twelve counts of criminal conspiracy to commit murder, the majority of which took place while you commanded the Robbery / Homicide Division, I have no doubt that questions are certain to be asked about your fitness for command" Taylor took a step forward, his hands working in his rage.

"Listen you stuck-up dyke bitch, I don't have to take this shit from you or any of you arrogant lez ho's" He took another step forward, looming over me with his additional height. "I've a mind to teach you a lesson you won't forget; you need to learn your place..." He was suddenly interrupted as two large forms stepped forward between us, Roberto Mapagu and Bill Harakaia. It was Roberto who spoke first.

"Sir, step back" Commander Taylor may have been a big man, but he wasn't completely foolish, he took a step back. Bill took another step forward into the Commander's personal space and spoke, his voice quiet but menacing.

"I strongly suggest you back off sir; way, way off" Taylor was about to say something when he suddenly realised that the entire room was looking at him, including all six of our Talisman protectors, several of whom had their hands inside their coats. He took a step back then turned to look at Brenda.

"What the fuck is going on here, you can't do this" Before Brenda could reply a welcome voice was heard.

"Just watch us" I turned at Jane's reassuring voice to see Anastasia and her standing in the doorway to the conference room, both looked very, very unhappy and had their hands resting on their pistols, something the Commander didn't miss either.

"I'll have your badge Rizzoli, you can't threaten a superior officer like this" Anastasia's voice easily carried the clear contempt she felt for the Commander.

"Say's the idiot threatening one of the department's ranking civilians, in front of witnesses and armed bodyguards" I didn't miss Jane's smirk either, though the anger in her eyes was still there, her voice carried the same implied threat.

"Either step back right now and leave, or you might not be alive long enough to file that complaint" Commander Taylor went to say something however before he could Brenda stepped forward.

"Commander, I strongly suggest that you leave. Given the issues of the last 24 hours and the evidence we now have, there is an obviously credible threat to our safety at the hands of your detectives" She tipped her head at Bill and Roberto. "These gentlemen not only are tasked with ensuring our safety, two of their friends are in hospital helping defend us from last night's attack" She smiled up at him sweetly. "Given we're likely to be able to tie all of that back to the corrupt detectives you command, plus you were foolish enough to threaten Doctor Isles in front of a room full of witnesses, you can see why it's probably in your best interest to be somewhere else"

"You bitch, you can't treat me like this" Natalie cheerfully spoke up from my left.

"Actually as senior officer here Deputy Chief Johnson is completely within her rights to do so Commander. At the moment it's you in the wrong, failing to comply with the directives of a senior officer" The Commander eyed Natalie with hostility, it was well known he despised her, having crossed swords with her repeatedly and come out second best most of the time, something confirmed by his words.

"Shut the fuck up, you ignorant dyke slut" Natalie smiled, well smirked actually, her overly-polite tone if anything further goading Commander Taylor.

"Careful Commander, anyone might suspect you have a problem with women and gays, not to mention gay women, or is it just that because we're capable and competent that you find us a threat?"

"I'll see you burn in hell, all of you" He glared at Natalie. "As for you, you uppity dyke, I'll make sure you get everything that's coming to you" Anastasia stepped up beside Natalie and spoke, her voice cold.

"That sounds like a threat to me" Jane quickly chimed in.

"Me too" Anastasia nodded briskly at Jane's words before turning her attention onto Commander Taylor, her voice carrying a chill.

"That's the second person you've threatened here, I suggest you get the hell out of here before I rack up my second shooting in two days" She shrugged, the lack of concern obvious in her voice. "Given you just threatened my partner, I'd probably enjoy this one" The Commander had obviously taken leave of his senses as he took a step forward, anger clearly obvious in his face. Before he could take another step Dennis Hennessy's voice rang out.

"Halt or we fire!" I glanced around to see every one of the Talisman personnel either had their hand on their weapon or had already drawn them, none were directly pointing their weapons at him, but the threat was obvious. The Commander's face went white as he looked round, taking in the threat and realising just how much danger he was in. Finally he lifted his hands clear of his body and took a step backwards as he spoke, his voice weak.

"You can't do this, you can't treat me like this" Sharon shook her head sadly at his stupidity.

"Commander, you have previously threatened several of the people in this room, your officers were responsible for the attempts on our lives and now you've just threatened violence against both Doctor Isles and Miss Dearing. I suggest you get the hell out if here before you do something we'll all regret" Anastasia chimed in quickly.

"I won't" Sharon threw a semi-annoyed glance over at Anastasia before looking back at the Commander.

"Well?" The Commander looked round the room and tried to regain his previous confidence.

"I will lodge a formal complaint against this" Brenda shrugged, unfazed by his threat.

"You've already threatened Doctor Isles and Miss Dearing in front of a room full of witnesses; I'd like to see you defend yourself against those charges in court against a competent prosecution lawyer" Mikki spoke up from where she was leaning in the doorway to the conference room where we had placed Lieutenant Di Marco.

"Andrea would be more than happy to prosecute that charge Chief" Brenda tipped her head in Mikki's direction and nodded.

"Why thank you Detective Mendoza, I appreciate that" She then turned her attention back to the Commander, her voice hardening, the steel under that Magnolia charm visible. 'Now get the hell out of my squad room Commander, and don't come back" Taylor tried to bluster but it was obvious to everyone it was weak.

"This isn't over, not by a long shot" Brenda and Sharon exchanged a meaning-filled glance before Sharon smiled.

"Oh yes it is Commander, it's finally over" Taylor went to say something but Brenda turned and walked away, as did the rest of us, leaving him standing there. Realising he wasn't welcome he took the hint and left.

**New York, the previous night**

Olivia's viewpoint

We'd finally put away a serial rapist who'd preyed on Manhattan's elderly, single women. Peter Christian seemed like a normal everyday guy, but he had deep seated issues with elderly women, he'd raped and assaulted more than two dozen seventy- and eighty-year old women over the last six months, most of whom were left traumatised and carrying mental scars that weren't ever going to heal.

His lawyer had tried to argue diminished responsibility, claiming he'd been subject to child abuse, but Alex and Casey had comprehensively demolished that argument. Alex had been devastating on the cross while Casey had taken apart the defence's star witness, a psychologist who'd tried to argue that Christian was suffering from the after effects of physical and mental abuse he'd received from his grandmother as a child.

The jury hadn't been impressed and after Alex and Casey had finished ripping his defence to shreds they'd convicted in under an hour. The Judge had sentenced him to 10 years in prison, something that would normally have outraged me and which had brought both Casey and Alex surging to their feet, before he'd waved them back down and stated that it was ten years '_per rape_' and they were to be served consecutively. Best case, with time served Christian might be eligible for parole just before his 130th birthday, I'd exchanged a nod with Alex; that was good enough for me and her answering nod and ghost of a smile said she was satisfied as well.

Now though we'd gathered for a well-earned post-case set of drinks. Everyone from the Captain down had gathered to celebrate, we'd all contributed to the case; it'd been Munch in fact who'd followed up a hunch and discovered that all of the victims got their gas and electricity from Con Edison. Chasing that up we'd learned they were all within the area worked by a single maintenance department at Con Ed; Christian had worked for that division as a meter reader guy so he'd been able to scope out potential victims as he'd made his rounds. That had led to a lot of cross-referencing and running down of innumerable leads before we'd finally found an insomniac guy who'd been out walking his pugs one night and spotted a Con Ed vehicle close to the sight of one of the attacks.

Checking traffic and security cameras covering the roads leading in to the vicinity that night we'd got a partial plate number, enough to narrow the vehicle down to less than a dozen, most of whom had been able to alibi out. Two hadn't so we ended up pulling back while we followed up more leads. Christian turned out to have checked the meters of every one of our victims, so we'd put him under surveillance, eventually following him on a late night trip where he'd been arrested picking the lock to a eighty-two year old woman's apartment, dressed in head to toe black and carrying masking tape and condoms, the same MO as our rapist.

Now, with him off the streets we could let our hair down a little, despite it being mid-week we'd all had one or two more than we should while demolishing all sorts of junk food. We were getting ready to wrap it up when Amaro's head came up, peering back over my shoulder as he spoke, loudly.

"What the fuck?" As we looked to him he suddenly stood up and shouted to the barkeeper. "Hey, turn it up, turn the TV up" We looked from him to the big screen behind the bar to see the words 'Police Shoot Out' scrolling across the screen as figures raced across the screen, the shaky footage making it obvious that it was from handheld smartphone cameras. Tim the barkeeper looked round to see Amaro making 'up' hand gestures and turned, seeing the caption and nodding before he grabbed the remote, raising the volume; this was a cop bar and anything that had that caption was something his customers definitely wanted to see. The anchor was giving the voice over as all conversation in the bar stopped dead.

"The death toll from the shootout is currently at least five though we understand that number may go higher, with at least the same number of wounded. The deadly ambush on a quiet suburban street has left local residents shocked and frightened" I frowned, that didn't look like New York, the weather was sunny whereas it had been drizzling for most of the day here in New York, Rollins also picked up on that immediately.

"Can't be New York thank god" There were nods round the table as the anchor reappeared.

"We advise viewer discretion, as some of the following footage may cause some viewers distress" I frowned, from long experience I knew that was news-speak for 'here come the good bits'.

The whole bar watched as footage ran of a black guy in jeans and a sports jacket popping up over the top of a car and spraying a couple of black SUVs with an assault rifle, the full auto was loud over the speakers, the vision looked like it had been taken from less than fifteen feet away. I could hear muttering around the table at the sight; that was pretty fucking blatant on a suburban street. I was about to say something when I felt my heart clench, they'd cut to footage of a slim woman in a dark suit popping up and propping herself on the roof of a badly shot up SUV, taking aim with a gun fisted in both hands and holding it as I felt fear blossom in my stomach, I'd recognise that mane of dark curly hair anywhere, that sure looked like Jane Rizzoli.

"Is that…" It was Alex, her hand clutching my arm in a death grip. I nodded, unable to speak as the woman fired a single shot into the cab of a dump truck that had rammed the SUV, I didn't know if she'd hit her target but she dropped back down and turned as I felt Alex's hand spasm when we saw her face, it really was Jane. Alex let out a quiet moan.

"Oh my god…Jane" I instinctively reached out and pulled her to me tightly as the footage cut again, showing a black guy rolling round in agony, blood spraying from the ruin that was his knee, he'd obviously taken a round right through it as I nodded to myself, he wasn't walking anywhere on that, more footage of a guy in a suit ducking up from cover to take a shot with a pistol at another guy in gang colors with an assault rifle and missing. I was about to say something when the vision changed again, showing the first guy with the assault rifle, he'd emptied the magazine and was changing it when someone suddenly appeared from between the cars, drawing down on him, with a fist clenching in my gut I recognised Ana as she fired two shots, the first into the guy's body, the second into his head at close range as the bar filled with cries of 'Holy shit" and "Oh my god" and "Fuck". She'd killed the guy as effortlessly as breathing, even as her head swiveled, looking for more threats, her face impassive; I'd never seen her like this, she was unmoved by the guy she'd just killed, already looking for her next target. Fin's voice was low.

"Whoa, stone killer that one"

The vision cut again to show a guy sprawled on the street in a growing pool of blood, then another shot, showing Jane and another woman backed up against a car, before levering themselves up and frantically running across the road into cover, only for the blonde woman behind her to go down with a bullet to the leg. Alex's voice was a poor, broken thing.

"Was that...Maura?" I shook my head, the woman had been too tall for Maura.

"Don't think so" A small, frightened part of me though was wondering if it was Natalie, the blonde had a similar body shape to Nat. As the footage played I saw Jane scramble back out and start dragging the writhing blonde woman backwards into cover. Before I could say anything more Alex had thrown herself into my arms and buried her head in my shoulder, the tears already flowing, I wrapped my arms around her and held her as the footage played on, showing a set of three SUV's sandwiched together, compressed between the dump truck up front and a concrete truck behind. I ducked my head to lay a kiss on her forehead as she cried, getting a few strange looks from everyone but I didn't care. As she sobbed into my shoulder I tried to get through to her.

"Hey Angel, why don't you try calling them?" I got a small, weak nod from Alex but she continued crying as I looked up to see Rollins staring at me.

"Is she okay?" I shrugged slightly, not wanting to dislodge Alex.

"Those people, the women, they're our friends out in LA" She nodded as her eyes flicked up to the screen again, looking up I saw they were showing two bodies covered in sheets as I noticed Brenda Johnson in the back of the scene, talking to uniformed cops against a sea of ambulances and LAPD Black and Whites, different from the familiar mostly white with blue striping NYPD cruisers. More footage played showing bullet holes in building walls, spent cartridges littering the road, paramedics pushing a gurney into an ambulance, one shot had Maura standing next to an EMT as firefighters cut one of the SUVs open, her hands were covered in blood, making me wince at the sight. Alex must have seen it as her tears started again, I pulled her close and stroked her hair, muttering reassurance to her as the footage continued playing out on the screen.

I noticed the rest of the team were eyeing us off, so much for keeping our relationship under wraps any more, not that I cared, Alex needed me, nothing else mattered compared to that. Finally she wound down and I held her away from me for a moment, taking her in.

"Hey Alex, you okay?' She shook her head, she was a mess, her mascara had run from her tears, prompting me to give her some time to pull herself back together. "Why don't you try ringing Maura or Nat, confirm they're okay?" She nodded and looked round for her cell, picking it up from the table. I glanced at Casey and raised my eyebrow, glancing over at Alex and tipping my head towards her. Casey picked up on it immediately and grabbed Alex's purse and steered her towards the ladies, it'd give them some privacy for what might turn out to be a painful conversation, leaving me to face the squad. Rollins was first but not by much.

"So you and Cabot" It wasn't a question. Munch nodded.

"Yeah, how long's this been going on?" I shrugged.

"A while, we decided to keep it quiet for a while, we only told those people we had to at work, the Captain here and Alex's boss" I saw Amaro and Fin eyeing up Don but wisely saying nothing as Rollins spoke, carefully changing the subject.

"Tell us about your friends up there" She waved at the screen and I shrugged.

"We met Jane and Maura here about a year ago, they were down from Boston for the weekend and we crossed paths, we hit it off and we've been friends since" I decided they didn't need all the details. "We met Nat and Ana in LA when we were out visiting Jane and Maura" I glanced up to see the footage was looping, showing the same stuff. "I don't know what the hell that was all about; hopefully Alex will be able to get through to them"

We talked about the footage for a couple of minutes before Alex and Casey returned, she looked a lot better, not just from fixing her make-up.

"I just got on to Maura, she and Nat were together so I spoke to them both, their okay, they're all okay" Her words sparked a rash of questions from round the table as I noticed other people listening in from nearby tables.

"What the hell happened?"

"What was that all about?"

"So they were the women in the video?" Don raised his hand, his command voice drowning it the crowd.

"Enough people, let Alex speak" Alex nodded gratefully then stood a bit straighter as all attention turned to her.

"The people you saw, they're close friends of ours; Jane and Maura who used to be in Boston as a homicide detective and their Medical Examiner, Nat and Ana who used to be from Seattle as a Bureau agent and a media person and Sharon and Brenda, who are senior officers with the LAPD" She took a breath as I realised the whole bar was silent, everyone listening in, you could hear a pin drop in the quiet. "They're investigating a case that involves a Mexican cartel and some crooked cops" She waved at the screen that was still showing the footage on a loop. "That was the third attempt on their lives in five days..." I could see the hint of tears in her eyes but she pushed through as she kept going. "They've been lucky so far, but the attacks have escalated" Amaro nodded.

"Hell yeah, an ambush in a suburban street" He shook his head as another cop at the next table spoke.

"That's full on shit" Rollins spoke up as well.

"Your friends, they're okay though?" Alex nodded slowly.

"So far, but that's the third time" There was a jumble of questions before Don stood, raising his voice.

"Pipe down everyone and let Alex speak" There was sudden silence, there must have been fifty people standing round listening as he turned back to Alex. "Go on please" She nodded gratefully.

"The cartel's apparently sent assassins to kill them all in their homes, but they caught them in the act, then they tried a drive by shooting on Sharon and Brenda, they missed, just. They also chased another of our friends Maura, in a car chase; they were going to gun her down in her car. Fortunately the police cut them off and there was a shootout, but Maura's okay" She waved at the screen. "Then this, they were ambushed, if it wasn't for the fact that they were travelling in bulletproof cars with armed bodyguards they'd all be dead by now"

"Armed bodyguards?" It was a beat cop at the next table. "For cops?" Alex nodded.

"There are crooked cops involved, so they needed additional protection" Another cop in plain clothes, a detective from vice as I recalled, nodded and spoke up.

"Looks like a good thing too" There was agreement at that, god knows all three of the SUVs looked like they were going to be write offs; they were riddled with bullet holes. There were a few more questions before Don saw that Alex was flagging and called an end to them. As attention drifted back to new footage on the screen as a talking head prattled on about the increase in automatic weapons by criminals, Don turned to us and spoke, keeping his voice low.

"Do you two need some time off?" He shrugged. "Maybe go see them?" I shook my head as Alex spoke.

"No, they're knee deep in that case; they're hoping to arrest the people responsible soon as they have enough evidence"

I completely agreed, but for different reasons, sure they were busy but more importantly we'd just be walking into a sticky mess of a situation, if they needed bodyguards the last thing they needed was Alex out there, potentially in the middle of all that. No, we'd head out west and see them as soon as it was safe to do so and not a moment before. I wanted to be there, to help out if I could but not at the cost of potentially risking Alex; fortunately Don was cool about it.

"Okay, but let me know if you change your mind" We both smiled and thanked him, before Munch decided to push the situation to one side to concentrate on what, for him, was the most important things.

"So, Teflon, tell us, how long have you and our dear Sergeant Benson..." Alex rolled her eyes but answered.

"Months, we didn't tell people because we wanted to keep it just us for as long as possible" Amaro nodded.

"I just wanna know, are you two happy?" I glanced at Alex and her smile said it all as I spoke.

"Hell yeah, never been better" Satisfied Amaro sat back and nodded as Fin leaned in and spoke.

"We need dates Counselor, exact dates, there's money riding on this, real money" I heard that and my head swiveled.

"You were betting on us?" Fin was utterly unrepentant.

"Of course I was, you think my momma raised a fool, I wasn't gonna bet against you" He glanced at Alex and amended that statement. "Either of you" I was about to say something when Casey shrugged and spoke up.

"Might as well tell them, there's a betting pool at 1PP as well, might as well kill two birds with one stone" Alex and I exchanged a 'what the hell' glance before I shrugged, letting her know that I was cool with it. Alex nodded slowly and turned back to Fin.

"How big is the pot?" He looked embarrassed and Munch leaned forward.

"It been running since you first arrived" Munch shrugged. "It never got shut down when you were…away, plus every time you came back more people got involved, it's well over ten grand now" I frowned, ten thousand dollars, no way. Alex however was less appalled than puzzled.

"But those people who bet when I first arrived, they must have lost out?" Much looked a little abashed.

"Each time you came back and everyone saw how you two were with each other, well we let everyone reset their bets" He tried to shrug it off. "It's been three times, so lots of people are gonna want to know"

"Including me" It was Fin. "So c'mon guys, cough up the date" Alex nodded slowly then smiled.

"So, there's a lot riding on this, what's it worth to you to know?" Rollins narrowed her eyes as she looked at Alex, obviously she had money riding on this too.

"What do you mean?" Alex smiled.

"I'd be happy to tell you, in return for a piece of the action" I felt a smile break out as Munch, Fin and Amaro all started protesting, though I already knew who was going to win that argument. Don leaned over and quietly spoke.

"You and Alex going to be okay" I nodded once.

"We will be" He nodded and leaned back as we watched the others bicker and bargain as I nodded to myself.

We would be.


	80. Chapter 80

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**80 Connections**

Jane's viewpoint

We were sitting there, bouncing ideas around the squad room while Buzz compiled all the available online footage of the ambush, there were literally hours of the stuff being posted by the witnesses, anyone with a smartphone, which meant pretty much everyone these days, had videoed what they'd seen and plenty had uploaded it within minutes, it was a massive YouTube sensation now, images being retweeted, the videos being shared and every news station in the country running everything they could get their hands on pretty much non stop. I suppose I should have been pissed but on the other hand that much coverage pretty much meant the Officer Involved Shooting investigation was going to be open and shut.

That didn't mean it wasn't a god almighty mess though. A multiple-fatality shoot out on a public street corner between a street gang with automatic weapons on one hand and police, a federal agent and civilian security people on the other was always going to redefine the term complex.

I'd already had my interview with Mark Rosenberg from FID, he'd been straight with me, telling me that it certainly looked like self-defence to him and that was what he was going to write it up as. In turn I'd been straight with him, telling him I had shot the guy in the truck's cab, how I hadn't called on him to drop his weapon or identified myself as a cop and explaining why I didn't think I had the time or the opportunity to do either. We'd watched some footage online of the whole ten seconds or so that I'd stood there, I'd got chills as I realised I'd been a sitting duck there, standing still in the middle of a firefight, anyone could have dropped me. I made a note to try and keep Maura from seeing any of this, then grimaced as I remembered that Nat would be seeing it all which meant Maura would hear about it.

God knows Maura had already got a call from Alex back in New York, they'd seen the footage, it'd apparently been the lead item on news stations across the country, Alex had called to find out how we were, fortunately we'd been able to tell her we were all unharmed but I was expecting Liv to call sometime later today, probably to ask a number of variations on the same question, God knows I'd already had calls from Ma, Frost and Korsak so far, plus Suzie and Ma had both called Maura, so I was appreciating Liv's restraint.

Reviewing the footage I'd noticed that Ana, with apparently a hell of a lot more experience at this sort of thing from her time in Iraq, had basically dropped out of sight as soon as she got out of the SUV, popped one guy in the leg under a car then barely appeared as she made her way from cover to cover, before turning up and capping the second guy. She'd double-tapped him cool as, I was pretty certain he was dead or dying from the first shot, the second to the head was just overkill, or as she might describe it, insurance. I sure as hell hoped she didn't catch too much hell from the Bureau about what some of the civil liberties talking heads on the news shows were already calling an execution. I could imagine that there'd be a discussion about that with Nat sooner rather than later too.

I was still thinking about that when Sanchez stormed into the room, obviously pissed. He threw himself into his chair, cursing under his breath as all conversation in the room died off. He muttered to himself for a few seconds before looking up into a silent room to find us all watching him; shaking his head in frustration before Gabriel asked the question.

"What's got you so steamed?" Sanchez looked round again then spoke, his voice still clipped in anger.

"Just got back from ID'ing the gangers who shot up the convoy" His mouth twisted like he wanted to spit; I frowned, losing patience, not that I was renowned for having much at the best of times as Maura takes some pleasure in reminding me from time to time, not that this was the best of times to begin with so I gave him a not-so-gentle verbal nudge.

"Yeah, so?" He looked my way and spoke.

"They were all Barrio Bangers" I saw a wave of comprehension sweep over the room as I joined in the nodding while Flynn was the first to speak.

"The same sorry ass sons of bitches we put away for the armored car job" Sanchez nodded once.

"Yep, figure they were looking at a little payback" I frowned, that seemed just a little too pat for mine, Provenza was apparently having the same issues.

"Sanchez, we have the majority of the intelligent members of the Bangers awaiting trial, most of the ones left were the dumb ones, they couldn't go take a dump without adult supervision, planning an ambush on a speeding convoy looks a little outside their expertise" I thought over his words while Sanchez spoke.

"Maybe, but all the ones we got, living or dead, they all ID'ed as Bangers" I suddenly remembered what Ana had mentioned while we were standing around at the scene in the hours after the ambush and spoke up.

"Maybe not so dumb; some of the Bangers were ex-military, they saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Apparently the sort of ambush we saw was common over there, in fact Ana told me she got caught in something almost identical while she was in Iraq" I shrugged. "Maybe someone here decided to try the same thing" There were thoughtful looks around the room before Tao spoke up.

"Yeah, maybe, but how'd they know where to spring the ambush?" Gabriel sat up, obviously he'd had an idea which he quickly explained.

"Maybe had someone follow them on traffic cameras?" Flynn shook his head, shooting that idea down fast.

"Unlikely, they'd need someone on the inside at the traffic management centre, that place is pretty tightly monitored" He held up his hand at Gabriel's suddenly downcast expression. "Don't mean it's not worth checking out though" Sanchez spoke up again from his desk.

"They could just have followed them to the boat one night and passed on the route" I shook my head; it was my turn to hose an idea down.

"Maybe, but we've met the boat at a different place each time" Flynn pulled a face as he spoke.

"Boat that big, easy to watch it coming in if you know what to look for" Gabriel's eyes widened as inspiration hit, his voice full of excitement.

"Yeah, maybe the Port of LA has some kind of website that you can track ships coming and going" Tao immediately turned to his computer and got busy as we all sat and waited. Thirty seconds later he sat back in satisfaction

"Bingo. They put their radar plot up on their website; you can see every ship come and go, complete with the ship's name. If they were watching they could tell which part of the harbor they were going to, easy as anything" Provenza frowned as he turned to look at him and then glanced my way as he asked the question.

"But how did they know exactly where to hit you?" I shrugged, my mind had already been considering that, as I put some of my thoughts into words.

"Someone was following us and called it in" I leaned forward as I worked my way through my thoughts. "Say they'd followed us before, seen us getting on the boat and realised that was where we were at night" I rubbed my hands together in thought as Sanchez leapt in, words tumbling out.

"Yeah, they track where the boat's going, that gives them an idea of your destination" Flynn nodded, starting to get excited too.

"They have someone follow you, calling it in, they know you're heading for the docks, so they know where to have everyone waiting, they'd have enough time to get everyone into position, all they'd need'd be timings and the exact road you're using" Gabriel looked across at me from where he was sitting on his desk and spoke up, excitement colouring his voice.

"You get stopped at an intersection or red light, which means you're a sitting duck for the trucks and..." He punched a fist into his palm dramatically. "…boom" I tried not to shudder too much at his enthusiasm, he hadn't been inside that now-totalled Suburban when we'd been hit.

I'd already seen the traffic camera footage once and once was enough. Mike had pulled the footage for FID, it was pretty graphic, according to Nat the media were screaming for the footage as well, they wanted it badly enough that they were putting in Freedom of Information requests for it; apparently the camera phone stuff they'd been running pretty much non-stop since the attack wasn't enough, now they wanted the big picture stuff. Turning away from that I looked across at Provenza, he was the senior officer here right now so it was his call.

"So how do we do this?" He looked around and started allocating tasks.

"We send Gabriel down to the Traffic Management Centre to check out two things, firstly was anyone there tracking your convoy and if not, was anyone following you the last couple of nights" Gabriel frowned at Provenza.

"Why me?" Provenza was unfazed.

"Cause you came up with the idea in the first place" He mock bowed. "Only fair you have a chance to prove your theory" Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for nothing. That'll take hours" Provenza smiled at him, the smile of a senior officer talking to a junior one.

"Then you'd better start soon" Sanchez leaned forward in his chair.

"Whadda we do about the Bangers though?" Flynn spoke up.

"I think we need to get the Tactical Response guys prepped for another raid on the Bangers" He shrugged. "Captain Collins is a friend of both the Chief and the Commander, he's not going to be too upset at the chance to bang some heads together" I nodded, Peter Collins was a good guy, Sharon and Brenda both had good things to say about him, plus he was a lead from the front sort of guy, something I couldn't help but respect. There was one thing though.

"We need a warrant" Provenza spoke up, undeterred.

"I'll talk to Mendoza, ask her to get Hobbs to take it to a Judge" He smiled. "Don't think it'll take all that long, all things considered" Tao held up his hand to attract our attention and spoke up.

"Before we get too carried away, we still haven't established a connection between the Bangers and the Robbery / Homicide suspects. What's the connection?" I nodded, seeing several other people doing so as well. After all it's not like a cop could just pick up a phone and ring a street gang, let alone get them to give a cop the time of day. As the others talked it over I pondered the problem, Gabriel kicking them off.

"Maybe they heard about the takedown, knew the Bangers would be looking for some kinda payback" Sanchez nodded.

"Some of you weren't there when the Chief took down the top Banger, Nunez, in interrogation. He was some kinda pissed" Flynn looked round and nodded slowly.

"That'd work, he was pretty steamed" He shrugged and continued. "He made the usual threats, maybe he decided to make good on them" Gabriel stood and wandered over to the murder board, grabbing a whiteboard marker and making notes, speaking as he wrote.

"That works for me as motivation and we already have intent and capability. He tapped the whiteboard. "So I figure someone contacts the Bangers, tells them they have a chance at the Chief, Ana and Rizzoli here" I looked up at my name, seeing him glance over at me. "Well, you did both drag him out by his ankles in front of his fellow Bangers after he'd pissed himself in fright, shit like that's gotta hurt his pride, it sure cost him a lot of face with the other Bangers" I nodded, not letting the smile at that memory show as Gabriel continued speculating. "They get told they have a chance for payback, complete with a time and place" Provenza nodded and picked up the thread.

"That makes some sense. The sooner we get Collins' people kicking in doors the better" There were nods all round. "Wonder how many we'll find, they've probably gone to ground" Sanchez nodded.

"Found a deep, dark hole and they're hiding in it, waiting for this to blow over" His words suddenly made a light bulb go on, I looked up and asked something that was bothering me.

"Wouldn't you think that's what they would have been doing anyway?" Everyone turned to look at me. Flynn raised an eyebrow as Tao spoke.

"What are you getting at Jane, I'm not following you" I frowned as I laid it out for them.

"We had the senior members of the Bangers in custody for the Secure Transit job; we'd raided their safe house, which must have shaken them up right?" There were nods around the room as I got up; I needed to pace this out. "You'd kinda think that with all that attention they'd go to ground, right?" Sanchez made a noncommittal rocking gesture with his hand.

"Maybe yes, maybe no, if they pull too far back the neighboring gangs might start expanding their turf at Banger expense" I nodded at the truth there as I kept going.

"So figure some of them were still visible, even so, we had most of what passes for the Bangers brains trust under lock and key, so someone had to get to them, set up the job" Provenza looked over at me, the question on his face.

"And? Don't leave us in suspense Rizzoli, get to your point" I grinned, turning to Sanchez.

"If I wanted to talk to a ganger, I'd first go talk to someone who knew them right?" I ticked off one finger. "Either go see Nunez and his cohorts in prison…" Mike Tao jumped in, shooting that idea down.

"Not likely, they'd have to sign in with ID, it'd leave a paper trail" I nodded, shooting him a repoving look.

"Thank you for that contribution Lieutenant Tao, I was just about to say that" He grinned at me, completely unabashed as I continued. "That though is unlikely for the very same reasons so recently provided by Lieutenant Obvious here" I nodded at him and got one back, Mike didn't mind being teased ruthlessly from time to time. "So how else do cops go about finding hidden gangers?"There were puzzled looks around the room as I waved in Julio's direction. "In our case I'd ask Sanchez here, he stays in contact with the Gang Task Force" There were looks of comprehension around the room as Sanchez nodded. He spun his chair and grabbed his phone as the rest of us listened in; less than two minutes later he turned around, though we'd heard most of it, and explained.

"Humphries is their liaison to the Task Force; she used to be a member before she moved on to Robbery / Homicide. She was at the normal briefing with the Task Force earlier this week" He frowned. "Must have been the same one I was at, don't recall her saying much though, or even being there" Sanchez shook his head and ploughed on. "Anyway, after it was over she hung back and asked a few questions about the Bangers, something about how they might be suspects in a case they were working on. They might want to bring in one of the senior Bangers still on the street for a talk, then asked how they could get in touch with them" There were nods all round the room, that kinda pulled all the pieces together. I looked over where Provenza and Flynn were sitting.

"Let's get the warrant for the raid on the Bangers moving" Flynn nodded as I turned to Tao, he was running that part of the case. "Did we leave any of the senior surviving Bangers on the ambush still alive?" He nodded, grabbing a folder off his desk and flipping through for a moment before looking up.

"Yeah, William Wendell Walker, 'Three Dub' to his rapidly diminishing roster of friends still alive, he was brought in to Good Samaritan with a bullet in his leg, in fact he's still there." I nodded, already considering the next step, then spoke.

"I think Three Dub and I need to have a talk" I looked around. Who's coming with me?" Gabriel frowned.

"Won't the Chief want to do it?" I thought about it then shook my head.

"She and the Commander are still ass deep in that OIS investigation nightmare and will be for a while, plus they've got bigger fish to fry" Sanchez spoke up.

"What?" I looked over at him and explained.

"They're off at the hospital talking to Danny and Claudia and their boss Carl Waters from Talisman" I mentally sighed, glad I wasn't the one having that conversation as I looked round, seeing people nodding and shrugged. "Might as well get him while he's still in hospital, in pain and pissed" "Sanchez smirked happily.

"You're looking forward to this aren't' you Rizzoli?" I grinned at him.

"That's twice I've crossed paths with the Bangers and each time's cost them, whatever makes you think I enjoy making their lives miserable?" I looked around the room. "Seeing I'm currently unarmed and will be until the OIS is wrapped, who wants to come with me?" I grabbed my jacket coat as I pulled a couple of pictures out of a folder on my desk, looking back up to see Flynn dangling a set of car keys from his fingers.

"I might as well come; I shouldn't let you have all the fun" I laughed and snatched the keys from his fingers before I led the way to the elevators, looking over my shoulder.

"I'm driving"


	81. Chapter 81

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**81 ****Bullets and Bangers**

Andy's viewpoint

The Banger's guy was still in Good Samaritan, moved there from the original admitting hospital because the County had a special deal with them to take prisoners and they weren't too far from the Parker Centre, it beat chasing suspects across a whole range of hospitals throughout the Los Angeles area. He'd since had a slug from one of the girl's bodyguards removed from his leg, apparently they'd hit him in the knee so he wasn't going anywhere under his own steam before a complete knee reconstruction and a shit load of rehab.

I had to say Rizzoli was in a surprisingly good mood, especially for someone who'd nearly lost her life last night, she'd been cracking jokes and giving me grief about football and baseball; LA's teams weren't having a particularly good year and Rizzoli was taking pleasure in reminding me both the Sox and the Patriots were doing better than they were. She was a strange one, open about some things, guarded about others, though she'd opened up a bit more in recent months, definitely compared to the woman who'd arrived from Boston six months ago. I suppose as she got used to us, got more comfortable with the rest of the team, she'd dropped her guard a bit. I liked her, despite the model looks she was a cop's cop, no airs and graces, just as willing as the rest of us to get her hands dirty. She liked putting the scumbags away as much as the rest of us, which was really all that mattered.

I counted us lucky to have her out here and even more so to have the Doc as well, I understood from a few comments Rizzoli had made that her old boss back in Boston had been a complete dick about her and the Doc being together and had basically declared it open season on Rizzoli and Maura for the gay-haters on the force. I mentally shook my head, the man was a fool, he'd driven them away and Boston's loss was definitely our gain, they'd lost a great cop and an outstanding M.E. and we'd gained some really good people, even if Rizzoli still followed the wrong damn teams.

Arriving at Good Samaritan, after enquiring at the front desk the three of us made our way through the halls, Jane's bodyguard Ramon Rodriquez tagging along with us, normally Rizzoli wasn't the sort of person who'd need or want a bodyguard; mind you after the recent attempts on her life and, more importantly on the Doc's, she was learning to accept the help. I'd spoken to him and learned he was an ex-SEAL, Rodriquez was a quiet guy but he exuded confidence; after what had happened yesterday it seemed the confidence was warranted, the news stations had been hammering the story pretty much non-stop for the last day, when I'd spoken to Ana Romanov she told me they'd apparently run Natalie ragged dealing with all their requests.

Some of the footage had been pretty full on; I'd sat and watched parts of it, taken by witnesses on their phones and uploaded to YouTube almost instantly. Some of it was pretty damned graphic, one particular shot of Ana coolly double-tapping some punk with an assault rifle in the chest and head was raw as, mind you the footage made it clear he'd been swinging the AK towards her when she'd fired, so it was a righteous shoot in my book, Ana was a Fed though and the Bureau might see it differently, from my experience they usually had a stick up their asses about something or another, all in the name of doing things by the almighty rule book.

Rizzoli here had been filmed standing up with bullets whizzing round her to take out a shooter in a truck, a damned gutsy move, one that might have got her killed if she'd been unlucky. Everything I'd seen, in her record and the stuff I'd researched on the net of her career back in Boston said she'd always been both brave and lucky; the LAPD Honour Roll was full of brave cops; if Rizzoli had been any less lucky she'd be another name on that list.

I had to say though all that imagery, stills plus video, together with the traffic camera footage, made it an open and shut case, any jury sitting through that footage would convict without a second thought and to hell with whatever crap the defence tried to claim, so all the surviving Bangers were going to go away for the rest of their lives for attempted murder one which was about as good an outcome as we could hope for.

We turned a corner and found a corridor with a number of uniforms standing round, they'd put most of the Bangers together so they were easier to guard with another in Intensive Care not going anywhere anytime soon. After a quick chat with the sergeant in charge we wandered in to talk to Three Dub, AKA William Wendell Walker, former member of the Barrio Bangers, soon to be just another scumbag inmate, a guest of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, mind you Three Dub here wasn't going to get much use out of the second part of their name, not with the sentence he was staring down the barrel of.

Lying there with his leg in traction was a big guy, definitely an iron pumper, all massive biceps and huge chest, I'd bet my pension he was steroid user to get that definition, he looked like some of the people we'd interviewed during the Reinhold case not so far back. He wasn't going anywhere now though, not under his own steam that is, not until the docs took out what few fragments of his knee remained after a 9mm had shattered it and they'd installed a new stainless steel replacement. He'd never run again though, at best he'd walk with a bad limp but he was still alive, which was more than could be said for a bunch of his fellow Bangers. His prints were all over an AK recovered from the scene so Walker was looking at life for attempted murder, along with the rest of the surviving Bangers. We introduced ourselves but it was obvious he didn't want to talk, so Rizzoli spelled it out for him.

"Look, I'm not here to ask you to incriminate yourself in the attack, there's enough forensic evidence for that" Rizzoli sighed. "We're trying to find out who sent you out after us"

"I got nothing to say to you bitch" Rizzoli just walked over and snagged herself a chair, plopping herself down directly in front of the end of the bed and staring over the bed and his raised leg at Three Dub who suddenly found the wall interesting rather than look at her.

"You do realise that you were set up?" Surprised, Walker looked over at her words.

"What the goddamn fuck you talking 'bout?" Jane shrugged; her lack of real concern obvious as I admired her acting ability.

"What did they tell you, the people who sent you after that convoy?" She made a casual hand wave gesture as she continued. "Easy job right, a chance for some payback on the cops who fucked you up, a piece of cake?" Walker looked at her, trying for a blank expression and failing as Rizzoli sat back, watching him carefully. "Shame they were setting you up, sending you in cold" I nodded, maybe I should try for the good cop, or at least reasonable cop to back her up so I spoke up.

"Look man, did they even tell you what you were up against? Hell, you might as well have shoved your arm in a lion's cage" Rizzoli nodded slowly then smiled.

"They didn't tell you a damned thing did they, not a damned thing? You didn't have a clue, not really" Walker frowned at her.

"What the fuck you talking 'bout bitch, you don't know nothing" Rizzoli smiled and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees.

"Then let me spell it out for you Three Dub, there were twelve people in that convoy, half of them were cops, the rest were ex-special forces; y'know, Army Green Berets, Marine Force Recon, that sort of thing, not to mention foreign special forces like the Special Air Service and Foreign Legion" She sat back in the chair and shrugged. "Most of them have years of experience in the worst war zones, chasing terrorists and insurgents, real soldiers" I nodded and backed her up.

"Real killers too, all of them, you're actually lucky to be alive" Jane nodded in response and pushed on.

"Unlike five of your fellow Banger's, they're decorating slabs down at the morgue" Walker's head came up at that as his eyes widened.

"Five?" Apparently the word hadn't filtered down to him yet. I nodded.

"Yep, plus you and four others in hospital getting slugs pulled out of you. Most of them are worse than you" Walker seemed to still be processing the news.

"Who died?" I shrugged, pulling out the notebook and reading the names.

"Let's see, Jackson, Harris, Bryant, Freeman and Wallace, it wasn't pretty" Rizzoli leaned forward, spreading her hands out as she spoke.

"Yeah, we didn't want to kill them, but you attacked us, didn't leave us with a whole lot of choice" Walker was taking it hard. To me they were just a bunch of dumb gangers who'd asked for it, but to him they were his friends I suppose, though in my experience most gangers loyalty was skin deep. Finally he looked up, his face and voice filled with anger and sorrow.

"You killed my brothers" I knew you could colour Rizzoli completely fucking unimpressed with his grief, something she worked hard to keep out of her face and voice as she worked him over like a pro as I admired her work.

"Well, they ambushed us and were trying to kill me and my friends" She shrugged. "Or did you conveniently forget that part?" He still wasn't getting it.

"You came after us, we came after you, payback"

"If that's what you want to call it, go ahead" Rizzoli sat back. "I'll remind you that if you hadn't your friends would still be alive and you wouldn't be looking at major surgery so you can walk again" That pushed Three Dub's button; he jerked up in the bed, all anger.

"Yeah, no fucking thanks to you" Rizzoli was unfazed, watching as he sank back onto the pillows before pushing on.

"Hey, you'll walk again and you're alive, that's more than some of your pals can say" She leaned forward and spoke, her voice full of sincerity. "Look man, I sure as hell didn't ask to be in that ambush and you sure as hell didn't know what you were being sent into. Somebody set us both up" She stood and walked a little closer to the bed. "Who sent you after us Triple Dub? I mean someone had to have set you up for this"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Rizzoli shot me a look and I took a step forward and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, I actually would. Because they sent you out to basically kill and get killed, sent you out without proper intel and look what it got you" Rizzoli leaned forward, her forearms on her thighs and spoke.

"You might have got lucky, maybe killed one or two of us, but instead five of your people are dead, Murray's still critical, he might pull through, he might not" She shrugged. "Don't you want the person who basically got them killed to pay for it?" Walker looked out the window, trying to ignore us for a while then eventually looked back at us.

"What's in it for me?" Rizzoli didn't pull any punches in her reply.

"Look man, you're going to jail, nothing you say here's gonna change that" She waved her hand like she was pushing any hope of a deal aside and continued on. There's too much evidence, including video footage of you specifically shooting at the cars for us to get any sort of deal past the DA and the Judge. On the other hand, the person who set you guys up is gonna walk free unless you help us find them" Walker grimaced like he'd just sucked a lemon.

"Won't happen, I don't have a name, I don't even know who they are" We exchanged a glance, at least he was talking. Rizzoli nodded and prodded a bit more.

"You didn't talk to them?" Walker shook his head.

"Nah, Freeman handled that, I just sat in a second car with some of the others during the meet, watching that it wasn't some kind of setup" Rizzoli nodded thoughtfully then spoke.

"Was it a man or women?" Walker frowned then looked up.

"Some arrogant ass white bitch, called us up outta the blue, said we could make some real cash and get a chance for some payback on the cops who'd busted us up over the guns" He shifted painfully in the bed, then continued. "Freeman met her at a shopping centre car park, she gave him details of how to find you, plus $25,000, called it a down payment, with double that if we pulled it off"

"Tell me about the woman" Three Dub grimaced as he shifted in bed then continued.

"All stuck up as fuck, like her shit don't stink or nothin' but her money was good and so was her info. Confirmed that you were the same cops who hit us earlier and suggested an ambush" He shrugged. "A couple of my homies, they were in Iraq, they got everything set up then all we had to do was wait" I nodded then spoke up.

"How did you know where to hit the convoy?" Walker looked over to me and shrugged carefully.

"Freeman got a phone call to let us know when it was leaving and where it was headed, we had some of our guys follow them in a couple of cars. They phoned it in and everyone got in position" Rizzoli looked him straight in the eye and spoke.

"Any idea who called, was it the woman?"

"Yeah, Freeman said she'd called, so I guess" Rizzoli held herself very still as she asked the next question, the $64,000 question.

"Describe the woman" Walker shrugged carefully again.

"Tall, pretty for a white bitch, body wasn't bad, white straight blonde hair, dressed in a suit" Rizzoli exchanged a glance with me and then reached inside her jacket, pulling out a DMV image and holding it up, it was Julia Humphries.

"Is this the woman?" Walker peered at it for a moment and then nodded.

"Yeah, that's her" I saw a small smile of satisfaction pass across Rizzoli's face as she glanced at me before she turned back to Walker as she put the photo back in her pocket and then spoke.

"Three Dub, if you will testify, tell a court everything you've just told us, I will do absolutely everything I can to get you a deal" He looked up, guarded hope warring with suspicion in his eyes.

"What sort of deal?" She held her hands out in an uncertain gesture.

"I dunno, whatever I can get you. I can't promise anything concrete yet, but I will give you my word that I will argue your case in front of the District Attorney" He stared at her for a moment before finally nodding.

"Suppose anything's better than where I am now" Rizzoli handed over her card.

"I'll be in touch" Walker looked down at the card then back up at her.

"What about the woman, can you find her" Jane just smiled, it wasn't a very pleasant smile, I'd seen that look before, right before she went into a life or death situation, ready to kill to avoid being killed. It was a good thing Humphries was in custody; otherwise she'd be in Rizzoli's sights right now, though I didn't understand why she was taking it so personal.

"Oh yeah, I can find her" She nodded once. "Don't worry; she's going to death row" Walker lay back at that, wincing in pain then spoke, a little reflective.

"That's something then" With that Jane turned and walked out, Rodriquez and I right behind her. We caught up to her at the elevator banging the call button repeatedly, she was still steamed.

"Rizzoli, you OK?" She turned to look at me; I didn't like the look in her eye.

"I want her man, so bad. For criminal conspiracy to commit murder, plus five counts of murder for the dead Bangers" I nodded slowly, hoping to calm her down.

"We got her Rizzoli, she's not going anywhere" She was still right-royally pissed, I didn't understand until she spoke.

"What's the chance the bitch was also behind those gangers who went after Maura? After Brenda and Sharon too" I thought about that for a moment, it all made sense. Jesus, Humphries should be thanking whatever god she believed in that she was where Rizzoli couldn't get her hands on her right now.

"It could be" The elevator doors opened and we stepped in, Jane angrily banging on the ground button till the doors closed, she'd always been impatient but now she was pissed and impatient, not a good combo, especially for Humphries' continued well-being.

"Of course it is, you heard Sanchez, Humphries' had the contacts with the gangs, I'll bet we can find some way to tie her to those too"

"We'll need to look at cell phone records, see if she has any extras stashed at work or home" I frowned. "Figure she's too smart to use her own, so we need to try and find a burner phone" Rizzoli nodded, calming down just a little and thinking with her head, not her heart like a good cop should.

"Sanchez said the Gang Task Force gave her a number to contact the Bangers, we'll need Tao to see if he can run down that number, see which numbers called it, then see if we can cross match that to any of the cells of the gangers who went after Maura and the others" I nodded, it would be tedious and time consuming, but that's what cop work was when you boiled it all down, picking away at things until you found something which hopefully led to other things. As we exited the elevator and headed for the car park my cell phone went off, it was Provenza, I listened as he gave me an update and I told him we were on our way back and could tie Humphries to the Bangers, not missing his satisfied tone, he hated dirty cops as much as I did. He gave me a final piece of information before ending the call and I put the phone away, looking round to find Rizzoli looking at me.

"That was Provenza, he wanted to know how we're going" I shrugged. "You heard me" She nodded and we continued on towards the car as I noticed Rodriquez head swivelling round, taking everything in. "Oh Jane, one more thing" She looked across at me.

"Yeah?"

"It's six counts of murder for Humphries, not five. Murray, the one the Chief and the Commander shot, he just died in surgery"


	82. Chapter 82

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**82 Interrogations**

Jane's viewpoint

I was sitting in the quiet squad room thinking, well stewing actually, it was so quiet because it was actually pretty empty, Brenda and Sharon were taking a crack at Kennedy and then Powell afterwards, Provenza and Gabriel were hammering away at Di Marco, Elliot and Flynn were questioning Humphries instead of me because it was felt that I might 'lack objectivity' when it came to dealing with that arrogant bitch.

I had no idea where she might have got that idea, just because I'd let it be known that I thought life behind bars being every death row bull dyke's bitch was too good for her, given I was certain she'd sent the Lobo's after Maura, who said I couldn't be objective. I frowned, Brenda apparently, which was why I was out here minding the room instead of kicking that bitch's ass.

I wasn't completely alone though; Buzz was off in the electronics room editing all the online footage available of the shootout site to help make the prosecution case against the Barrio Bangers, leaving me here twiddling my thumbs with only my shadow Ramon for company now that Danny was laid up in hospital. Once he'd been admitted Maura had placed a call to LA's most renowned orthopaedic specialist, I don't know what had been said or promised, but the specialist had been at Danny's bedside late last night and had operated early this morning, apparently the operation had been a complete success and the surgeon was very happy with the result; Danny faced a long convalescence and even longer rehab but he'd eventually be as good as new. Not that I was all that worried that I only had one protector now, if I needed to have a person watching my back I couldn't ask for much better than Ramon Rodriquez. He was an ex-US Navy SEAL, calm as a rock and just about as tough too.

I wanted to have a go at either Osmond or Farrar but Brenda had told us to leave them for her, she thought that any information they could get out of the others might prove good enough leverage to get either one of them to spill everything given they seemed to be the junior members of the conspiracy. I wasn't so sure, but in the meantime I was left sitting here minding the office, Tao and Sanchez were out supervising the teams currently tearing Kennedy and Powell's houses apart, looking for anything useful, while I held the fort down here.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye as Ana strode through the door, clearly in a hurry, her shadows Colin Firth and Tom Hafey having to move quickly to keep up. She had something in her hand as she spotted me and changed course my way.

"Ah Jane, good, I got something" I nodded at the urgency in her words and voice, a match for her hurrying pace.

"What you got?" She quickly perched herself on the corner of my desk as her shadows took up places nearby, their eyes scanning all the entrances as Ana filled me in.

"Before we were so rudely interrupted by all these attempts on our lives, we were looking into how they found their victims" I nodded slowly, we had been, back before things had got a bit hectic. Ana meanwhile was still going. "It had to be someone inside Justice's LA office to get the info, given how it's compartmentalised" I sat back and nodded and listened as she continued. "Plus we know from that comment by Powell that SIS taped that they were tipped off that I was investigating, which means that someone in the Justice office not only had access to the info, they also knew I was there investigation the leaks" I thought about it.

"Makes sense, they could have heard about you sniffing around through the office grapevine, but it also had to be someone who could access the database" We shared a look as she continued.

"There were three people in the LA Justice office that have access to the Witsec database" I nodded as she explained. "Lopez, the department head; their Witsec section head; a guy named Robertson and the Witsec database manager who is a woman named Hammond. There are others, up in the Witsec head office in DC but that's unlikely given all the killings happened here" I nodded once more as I remembered something she'd said over at Sharon's place, right before things spun out of control.

"Didn't you say Lopez was unlikely because he only recently arrived?" Ana nodded at my recollection, confirming what I'd thought.

"Yeah, he was on the Bureau's liaison team with Interpol in Europe before being posted to LA about fourteen months ago" I caught her eye.

"So that leaves Robertson and Hammond" She smiled a little smugly.

"Yep, I got back to my desk this morning to find several files from Justice's personnel section I'd requisitioned had finally arrived" She brandished what looked like a photo printed out on an office printer. "This is a photo of Joan Hammond" She handed it over and I looked at a DMV image of a woman in her late forties I'd guess, heavy set, greying early, she looked like she'd had a hard life and that the years had ground her down, Ana meanwhile was still talking. "The file had some details that rang a bell, so I started a search, social media, that sort of thing, this photo popped up, it was a birthday party taken five years ago"

Dropping a second photo print on my desk she smiled widely, obviously pleased with herself. I stared at what looked like half a dozen people around a grill; it might even be a family gathering as Ana's fingernail tapped the heavy set woman standing off to the left.

"Does anyone look familiar?" I stared at the image for a moment, the woman she'd indicated was obviously Hammond. I looked up, about to say something when she motioned towards the photo. "Keep looking" I scanned the image again, not seeing whatever she was talking about, not until my eyes landed on the man at the far right, my eyes widening as I spoke, my voice low and wondering.

"Son of a bitch" I recognised that face all right. "Kennedy" I breathed. She nodded as I looked up; the smile that appeared was dazzling.

"Detective Sergeant Paul Kennedy. The image was taken at a birthday party for Kennedy's mother; it was tagged on Facebook by one of the grandkids, which is what my social media search picked up" I looked from her back down at the photo.

"So they know each other" I didn't miss the satisfaction in her tone when she explained.

"Even better, they're related, half brother and sister" I looked up in surprise, seeing the same grim satisfaction in her voice evident in her grey eyes. "Hammond's a widow and her maiden name was Richards. Kennedy's mother had him then remarried when her first husband, Tom Kennedy, died of cancer a few years after he was born. The mother's second husband's name was Matthew Richards, four years after that marriage she had her daughter Joan" I nodded slowly, staring at the picture I could see the barest similarities in their chins, nothing I would have seen without knowing. I stood up, all set to head into Interrogation Room 1.

"We have to tell Brenda" Ana looked back at me, a little surprised.

Shouldn't we wait until she's finished?" I shook my head.

"I'm going bat shit stir-crazy sitting here doing nothing, this is too damned good to pass up" She looked a little unsure but two minutes later we had Brenda's agreement that we could bring Hammond in.

In under an hour we had Hammond sitting in Force Investigation's interrogation room, looking round nervously which suited me just fine. The others were still busy with the Robbery / Homicide crew so Hammond was ours. Ana looked over at me and smiled.

"Good cop and bad cop?" I shook my head.

"Given all the shit that's happened thanks to this lot how about bad cop and badder cop" She gave me a quick grin.

"Now that I can do" I nodded and opened the door, ushering her through, followed by Tom, Colin and Ramon who took up station on the walls behind her and on each side, leaving Hammond facing Ana and I. Hammond looked around nervously at the three men standing there, not that I blamed her, not when you have an ex-Navy SEAL, an ex-USAF Combat Controller and an ex-Canadian Special Forces guy all in the same room, all quite obviously not happy at all. They were still pissed that Danny and Claudia had been hurt, partly as a consequence of Hammond's actions, they were too professional to do anything more than glower but that was more than enough to unsettle her.

Sitting down I flipped open a folder containing what little we had on her, things had moved a little too fast to compile a full dossier, so I was winging it, not that I minded, I was running on adrenaline here. I ran my eyes down the page and then flipped it shut, my eyes slowly rising to look at Hammond.

"Why'd you do it Mrs. Hammond?" She looked up, apprehension in her eyes I was happy to see, I could work with that.

"Do what?" she yelped. Ana shook her head.

"Don't play dumb. Why'd you pass on info about people in Witness Protection to your brother?" She looked from Ana to me and back again.

"I don't know what you're talking about" I frowned.

"Let's talk about eight dead people, all in the witness protection program here in LA. Only two people here had access to all of that information, Robertson and you" She was trying to be cool, shrugging.

"So?" I tapped the file in front of me theatrically.

"You probably haven't been keeping up on current events but we arrested your brother early this morning, along with the rest of his accomplices" Her eyes widened at that, obviously she hadn't known. Ana smiled, jumping in while she was still reeling.

"They're currently being interrogated now. One or more of them are going to try and cut a deal to try and get out of going to death row with the rest of them. When they do, they're going to implicate you" I nodded.

"Conspiracy to commit murder, seven counts, well eight if we count that poor woman they took back to Mexico and tortured to death" Hammond's colour was turning pasty white as our words sank in as Ana nodded, piling on the pressure.

"That's in addition to conspiracy to kidnapping, violating all sorts of federal statutes and laws regarding the WitSec program..." She shrugged. "...all small potatoes compared to the main charges but all up they mean you're heading to death row"

Hammond stared back at me uncomprehendingly, events had moved way too fast for her and she was struggling to keep up, I'd seen people like this, not the quickest of thinkers, when their life turned upside down they took a long time to catch up, something which might work to our advantage if we could keep her off-balance. I decided to give her a push.

"So tell me Hammond, how much were you being paid?" Ana nodded, leaning forward.

"I'd like to know too, how many pieces of silver did you get for delivering people up to your brother for execution? How much did you get per death?" She sneered across the table. "I hope it was a lot, you're going to need it at your trial and lawyers don't come cheap"

"Trial…" Hammond was still obviously struggling to keep up so I spoke up, piling the pressure on.

"Yeah, your trial; y'know, the place where a jury finds you guilty of criminal conspiracy to commit murder, being an accessory before the fact and a whole butt load of federal crimes, then a judge sentences you to life" The owl eyes she suddenly grew might have been amusing under other circumstances.

"Life?" I nodded, not without some satisfaction given the misery this woman had caused, listening as Ana laid it out for her.

"Yeah, because California's not executing anyone right at the moment, so you'll get life, unless that changes sometime soon and they go back to executing death row inmates, in which case you get a date with the executioner" Ana shrugged. "I hope they do, I'll make sure it's in my diary, I'll be there, watching with a bottle of Champaign, I'll even toast you as they shove the needle in" I nodded somewhat theatrically and jumped in.

"Unfortunately, they don't use the electric chair anymore, which is a shame. Given what you did I think I'd rather see you fry, watching you go to sleep after a lethal injection's a little too peaceful for someone guilty of cold-bloodedly conspiring to commit multiple murders; I think I'd rather watch them buckle you into the chair, then pour all that electricity through you, watch you twitch and jerk and smoke as you cook from the inside" I shrugged, hamming it up as I looked over at Ana. "I'll join you for that Champaign though" She nodded.

"No problem, I think I'd better get a big bottle, given that Hammond will also be going up for conspiracy to kill six law enforcement personnel"

"What are you talking about? I don't know anything about that" It was Hammond; she was looking queasy at the direction the conversation had suddenly taken. I turned back to her.

"When you contacted your brother to tell him Special Agent Romanov here was looking into the Witsec program here in Los Angeles, in particular the killings you and he had been responsible for, what exactly did you think was going to happen?" Ana leaned forward.

"He decided I had to be taken care of, killed. Not just me either. They also decided Detective Rizzoli here had to die, together with her fiance and and my partner, plus her boss and her partner" I nodded.

"That equates to six law enforcement personnel that he contracted with a Mexican drug cartel to have murdered. Given your involvement the jury's going to have no problem convicting you of criminal conspiracy to commit murder, all of which means your going to death row" Ana sat back with evident satisfaction in her voice and expression as she piled the pressure on.

"Yep, like I said, as California isn't executing anyone right now, that means you'll spend your life waiting and wondering when that's going to change, when you're finally going to see the executioner" I smiled and added to the pile weighing on Hammond.

"So you'll get to spend the rest of whatever time you have left trying to survive on death row, alongside all the other women there who are waiting to die too, the murderers, the drug dealers, the serial killers and the child killers, I'm sure you'll fit right in"

"I don't know what you're talking about" I saw her looking round the room, she was staring to think, starting to realise that she could say nothing and maybe nothing would happen to her. Time for us to kick a large hole in that belief, there's nothing like facts to upset a suspect's carefully constructed house of cards, as Ana did just that.

"We currently have Justice and the FBI going through your access logs to the Witsec program, seeing which files you accessed and when" She waved her hand airily, as if it was only a matter of time before the truth came out. "They're going to match up your access to the individual files with the time line for each death and when they do, that information will send you to a cell next to your brother's friend Humphries on death row" I nodded in support, hammering another nail in.

"Not quite a textbook, open and shut case like you see on television, but about as clear a one as your likely to see in the real world" I nodded carefully, time to reel her in. "Now then, your guilt's pretty much a matter of record, especially when we match up your access records with your financial records. Taken together you'll pass quickly and smoothly through the trial and onto death row, to wait until the state starts executing people once again" Ana nodded sagely.

"You'll get a whole new wardrobe, mostly orange, I hope you like one piece coveralls, that's pretty much all you'll be wearing from now on" She shrugged. "Don't think the color will suit you though, despite what you might have seen on cable, orange is not the new black" I looked her over, she was looking pretty striken as the truth sank in, let's see if she was willing to play ball.

"You can go right the way through the system and end up in a cell waiting for death to come, or you can tell us about your part in this mess and we then tell the DA how cooperative you were and maybe they cut a deal" I shrugged, I didn't want to lie to her, I had a conscience, even if she didn't. "It won't be a great deal, but it's the only chance you have" Ana looked at me and nodded, then turned to Hammond, her voice blase.

"Or don't and die in a cell or on a table from the shit they pump into you" She pulled a face. "Either way you'll be dead" Hammond looked up from where she'd been staring at her hands, her expression haunted.

"I don't want to die" Ana shrugged, like she could care less, then leaned forward, her voice cold.

"No one does" Ana's voice was suddenly loaded with venom as she hammered the point home. "I sure as hell didn't when your brother decided that he should send assassins after me and the person I love" I nodded, following Ana's lead, my voice calm, we had her terrified, now we had to get her to a point where she'd connect the dots and realise she was better off talking to us before someone else talked first and devalued whatever currency her confession might have.

"Especially all those people your brother and his friends killed, they didn't want to die either, until you put them in the crosshairs" Ana leaned forward, menace in her voice.

"They mostly died quickly, well except for Adoria Moreno, unfortunately we don't do the Law of Talon here" She shrugged. "Y'know, the eye for an eye thing from the bible, if we did you'd be raped, tortured, skinned and staked out over an ants nest" Ana sat back, a picture of obvious unconcern. "We're supposed to be better than that, all civilised, or so they say" I leaned forward. and spoke.

"Look Mrs Hammond, you tell us all you know, we compare it to what we hear from the others when they start spilling their guts to avoid the death penalty, and if it pans out, I'll personally talk to the DA and tell them you cooperated. Then it'll be up to them" I shrugged. "It isn't much, but its a shit load better deal than you have right now"She looked from Ana to me and back again, then spoke.

"I think I need a lawyer" I sat back, annoyed, then nodded.

"Okay, we'll get you a lawyer" Ana leaned forward.

"I hope you kept the money your brother was paying you, your going to need it, good lawyers aren't cheap after all and you're going to need a real good one" I glanced at Ana then back to Hammond and spoke.

"Mind you, once he sees the evidence, he's gonna want to try for a deal, so we'll be back here soon enough, only by then someone else's testimony will be on the table and yours won't be worth shit" We stood and turned, before I looked back over my shoulder at her, seeing a small, frightened middle-aged woman there. "We'll get you that lawyer, and we're here if you decide to get smart"

Three hours later it was getting late and we were back, Hammond's court-appointed lawyer didn't beat around the bush.

"I understand that you are offering a deal if my client cooperates?" I shrugged.

"What's on the table, in return for full cooperation, is a run over to the DA's office and we explain that your client has been cooperative and that should be taken into consideration during charging and sentencing" The lawyer was aghast.

"That's it?" I exchanged a glance with Ana and she shook her head, pushing herself to her feet.

"Take it or leave it. You've seen the charges and the evidence, nothing's going to save her from jail time, the question is whether she does jail time with some hope for parole or ends up on death row, never to be released" I nodded.

"That's the deal" I waved my hand airily. "We don't need her cooperation to convict her, it's up to you and her to decide how this goes" I too stood and made to follow Ana to the door, only to be stopped by the lawyer's voice.

"Wait, please" I looked back as Ana answered.

"What" He frowned and looked at Hammond then back.

"Can I have a minute to talk to my client please?" I nodded and moved to the corner of the room standing there silent with my arms crossed, facing the wall as Ana moved up next to me and mimicked my pose. She glanced at me and raised her eyebrow in a question, one I answered with a tiny nod, bringing a small smile to her lips. Forty seconds later the quiet murmering behind us stopped and the lawyer spoke up.

"Detective, can we talk...?"


	83. Chapter 83

**A/N **Hi guys, it's Christmas Eve here (in Australia it is) and I thought I'd post something early as a thank you for all the kind wishes that you have been passing my way. Thank you for your kind words, for the reviews, the PMs, the support and for staying the course with me on this story.

As an author insecurity is a constant companion and you worry endlessly 'will people like this?' 'Will they be willing to stick with me?" 'Does this make interesting reading or am I being self-indulgent?'

You support and feedback has been greatly appreciated and I want you all to know how much it means to me. Thank you to all of you, you are the reasons I write.

I will be posting another chapter tomorrow, on Christmas morning, which will also include an outline of where we are going from here.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**83 An Offer ****Y****ou Can't Refuse**

Ana's viewpoint

I have to say I like watching Brenda at work when she's interrogating a suspect, especially when she wants to be a hard ass. Interrogations were her 'thing', she was renowned for them, bringing her CIA training and years of experience crossing swords with the worst of the criminal scum we deal with to extract confessions and information and bring closure to the victims. It was an LAPD legend that her squad treated them as a spectator sport, complete with popcorn and soda, something not too far from the truth.

I've sat in on or watched a few of her interrogations and she can be very convincing, playing out her chosen role to the hilt. Be it Brenda Leigh, the innocent suspect's friend trying to help them out; Brenda Johnson the concerned cop looking for the right answer and grateful for the suspect's help; Chief Johnson the sceptical investigator trying to get the the truth, whatever she needed to be to get a result, but when she's playing bad cop she's outstanding.

Hernandez was going to get CIA interrogator Johnson, ruthless hard-ass bitch out to play and given everything that had happened I couldn't wait to see it.

Brenda, Sharon and I walked into Interrogation Room 1 to find Hernandez and his cartel-appointed lawyer sitting there waiting for us, watched by Gabriel and Jane. Hernandez looked a little too cocky for my tastes, he'd stonewalled since he'd arrived; playing dumb while his lawyer, Gomez, had thrown every possible procedural delay he could at us. Now though we had enough to make him sweat, plus a hook baited well enough to have a good chance at getting him to stop wasting our time. It all depended on just how much he trusted the cartel to have his best interests at heart.

Yeah, right.

Brenda and Sharon settled themselves while I leaned back against the wall behind them, keeping my face impassive as Brenda leaned forward, smiling. '_Let the show begin_'.

"Mister Hernandez, we'd like to talk to you about the actions you undertook to have six law enforcement officials murdered here in Los Angeles..." She held her hand up to forestall Gomez. "...and before you start with the ritual denials, we have some footage you need to see"

Gabriel pushed a button on the A/V gear and the wall-mounted television screen lit up before playing the footage of Kennedy and Hernandez discussing our murder, leaving the room quiet afterwards before Brenda took up the questioning.

"Now then, let's talk about your involvement in the attempted murder of six people" Gomez spoke up, trying for authoritative and failing badly.

"This proves nothing; in fact we will show that this was some kind of entrapment operation by the LAPD to implicate my innocent client…" Brenda dismissed him with a brief wave, not even bothering to look at him.

"Oh shut up you, I don't need to hear it" As Gomez recoiled at the venom in her voice Brenda continued to focus in on Hernandez, now looking a little less comfortable. "We have also been talking to those hit men you sent north to do the job" She shrugged. "They've been very cooperative" Hernandez was trying for impassive but failing.

"I have no idea of what you are talking about" Brenda made a show of flipping open a folder and checking a line of text before looking up, her voice questioning.

"Really Mister Hernandez, I'm surprised you've already forgotten about the meeting at the Sinaloa cartel's premises at 334 Guettra Boulevard in Culiacan with Arturo Perez and Jose Vega? The one that took place four days ago where you sent those two cartel assassins north to kill us, we know all about that meeting, what was discussed, what they were told to do" None of us missed Hernandez's face tightening even as his lawyer hastily intervened.

"As he has already said, my client has no idea what you are referring to" Brenda leaned forward and clasped her hands together on the table top, ostensibly speaking to Gomez but directing her words elsewhere, this was between her and Hernandez.

"Please don't be so coy Mister Gomez; we know all about your client's activities, including the information in the envelope he gave them, the one with his fingerprints all over it, quite literally in fact, not only on the envelope but on the documents within" She shook her head a little theatrically. "Sloppy Mister Hernandez, very sloppy, that little piece of carelessness will put you on death row" Gomez waved his hand like he was trying to bat away Brenda's words.

"My client knows nothing of any envelope..." Brenda sat back, satisfaction evident in her posture and the warmth of her voice.

"Oh I think he does" She regarded the man across the table as her voice tightened. "Your incompetent assassins happily offered you up Mister Hernandez, they were the ones who told us where they'd been staying here in LA and when we turned the place over, well that's when we hit the jackpot" She flipped open the folder on the table in front of her, pulling out and tossing a creamy-colored envelope in a transparent and sealed evidence envelope onto the table, followed by another containing a sheet of standard A4 paper, fold lines where it had sat in the envelope still visible, a computer-printed list of names and addresses easily seen.

"Recognise those Mister Hernandez" her voice changed to a satisfied purr, her accent coming to the fore. "I'm sure you do" Gomez held a hand up in a 'stop' gesture in front of Hernandez and spoke.

"My client will strenuously defend himself against these allegations" Brenda barely gave him a glance.

"That's if you live that long Mister Hernandez" She shrugged. "Frankly I doubt you will. A man like you must be full of Sinaloa secrets, all sorts of juicy, valuable information, the sort of information that might just be worth something to the LAPD and lots of Federal Government departments, Justice, the FBI, ATF and plenty more besides, information that just might get you off death row" She left that hanging for a moment, sitting there in mid-air like the tempting aroma of good, freshly-roasted coffee, unseen but oh-so desirable. Gomez looked from her to Hernandez and back again, however before he could speak Brenda continued. "Just think Mister Hernandez, a lifetime on death row waiting for California to start executing people again; I don't know about you but that'd be something I'd do anything to avoid, wouldn't you?" Gomez jumped in.

"You are baiting my client Johnson" She cast a contemptuous glance at him.

"That's Chief Johnson to you Mister Gomez and I wasn't talking to you" She turned her gaze back to Hernandez and continued. "Even if you're loyal to a fault to Sinaloa, the cartel leadership might start thinking having you silenced mightn't be a bad idea, after all, dead men tell no tales, nor try and bargain what they know for a lighter sentence" Gomez frowned, flicking a look at Hernandez.

"Say nothing, they are trying to frighten you into telling them…" Brenda jumped in.

"Yes that's exactly right, telling us exactly what we want to know, trading your knowledge for a lighter sentence" The lawyer turned and spoke softly to Hernandez in rapid Spanish, fortunately we all had a link in our ears to where Buzz and Sanchez were busily translating from the electronics room, Sanchez translating Gomez and Buzz handling Hernandez' words.

"_Say nothing, it will go better for you if you say nothing_" Hernandez turned to look at him.

"_If I say nothing can you get me off__, get me out of here and back home?_" Gomez was impassive in face and voice.

"_It__ will be difficult, but I can only say that you should say nothing to anyone_" I could tell Hernandez wasn't all that convinced by the lawyer's blasé response.

"_Well at least get me out of here on bail_" Hernandez cast a nervous glance around the room, taking us in, before looking back at Gomez. "_That will make it difficult for them to pressure me, back home I can disappear_" Sharon took that moment to speak up for the first time, her voice that cool, clear, even tone.

"Don't bother getting his hopes up counselor, he's not getting bail" Both men looked up, eyes widening in the sudden realisation that the people around them understood what they'd said, they'd probably thought none of us could understand them, unaware we'd heard all of it. Sharon smiled. "I think we'd be able to argue quite convincingly that as a murder suspect your client would be a flight risk, especially when the judge hears exactly what he's just said" Gomez scowled darkly at us even as Brenda stepped back into the discussion.

"Mister Hernandez, I suggested that you might not live all that long in prison, precisely because of what you know" She shrugged nonchalantly then continued. "Given you conspired to have me and my friends murdered, pardon me if I don't particularly care what actually happens to you" Gomez was on his feet and went to speak but Brenda was quicker. "Sit down and shut up, I'm not finished" At her cold stare Gomez sat back down, allowing Brenda to turn that chilling gaze on Hernandez once again.

"It makes no difference to me really, you either die like a dog in prison, killed by Sinaloa, in which case it's not my problem, or you spend the rest of your life sentence without parole suffering the misery that cop-killers, or in your case incompetent, failed cop-killers, are subjected to in jail, again not my problem" She smiled, through there was no humour in it at all. "Then one day, decades from now, years after I've retired and living a happy old age sitting on a beach somewhere, I'll read that you've died on death row and you know what, I'll pick up my coffee and smile to myself that I won and you, Mister Hernandez, you lost" Gomez banged his fist on the table.

"Stop baiting my client Johnson" Brenda scowled at him, her voice biting.

"It's Deputy Chief Johnson to you, forget it one more time and I will have you tossed out of the building, do I make myself perfectly clear?" Gomez frowned right back at her, obviously unused to being treated with anything other than kid gloves, though Brenda was unimpressed. "Do you understand me Mister Gomez?" They had a staring match for five seconds or so, before Gomez looked away, not that Brenda was letting him off that easy. "What was that Mister Gomez, I don't believe I heard you?" Gomez sat there for a second, then nodded and spoke in an unhappy voice.

"Very well" Brenda then turned her attention back on Hernandez and smiled coolly.

"Excellent, now then Mister Hernandez, we were discussing your future, or lack thereof" She leaned forward. "You may trust Sinaloa to look after you, but I sure as hell wouldn't" She shrugged. "They could spend money on lawyers like Mister Gomez here to try and get you out on bail, which he won't, not with what you just said to him as evidence we can take to the bail hearing" Brenda smiled nastily at him before pressing on. "Then they could spend even more money on lawyers trying to defend you while you're on trial for conspiracy to commit murder, but a jury's going to see that tape and convict you in a heartbeat, on a minimum of six counts and probably a lot more than that, given your actions as a go-between, or they could just arrange for you to be shived in prison for the price of a few smuggled cartons of cigarettes" Brenda sat back, satisfaction evident in very line of her pose. "Now which is the cheaper, more effective option Mister Hernandez?" Gomez leaned forward.

"You are badgering my client..." Brenda was unconcerned.

"I am? I was just reading him his horoscope, telling his future" She smiled, it was cold as death. "It's really kind of easy actually, he has no future" Before Gomez could speak Sharon spoke again, her voice cold and clinical.

"I am sure you are well aware of how cheap life is to the cartel leadership Mister Hernandez, especially as you have organised so many murders on their behalf. I suspect having you killed would barely match Mister Gomez's retainer here for an afternoon's work" She shrugged. "Gold or lead, isn't that the offer the cartels make; money or a bullet?" She sat back in her seat, seemingly unconcerned. "Sinaloa have a similar choice to make. Do they spend gold on trying to save you from a life in prison which isn't going to succeed, or a much smaller amount to make sure the problem goes away permanently?"

"Both of you are threatening my client. This is completely unacceptable and I will bring a formal complaint to the District Attorney's office" Brenda was cheerfully dismissive.

"Feel free to do so Mister Gomez, in fact it just so happens we have a representative of the DA's office right here on the floor, so you can take that up with them just as soon as we finish up here" Brenda smiled, all syrypy charm and as obviously false as a three dollar bill. "No need to thank us Mister Gomez, all part of the service here at the LAPD, to protect and serve, just like it says on the side of the cruisers"

"You are making jokes about this very serious matter? Let's see you joke about a harassment claim!" Sharon was singularly unimpressed and it showed.

"I've had three attempts on my life in the last five days Mister Gomez, so don't try and lecture me about what is or is not a serious matter, I'd rather suggest your time is better spent reporting back to your paymasters about our little meeting and how Mister Hernandez here is going to stand trial and be convicted for at least six counts of conspiracy to commit murder" Sharon shrugged then continued. "That is unless he decides to cut a deal" Gomez was right on top of that, leaning forward to add emphasis to his words, though I couldn't really tell if he was trying to influence us or Hernandez.

"There will be no deal" Brenda looked at Gomez then quite deliberately looked to Hernandez and spoke quietly.

"Mister Hernandez, I'd like to bring you up to date with current events, things you may have missed while you were 'indisposed' downstairs" Brenda smiled. "There was an attempt on the lives of both of us..." She nodded at Sharon before continuing. "...and our colleagues, the ones you had previously agreed to have killed" She shrugged. "Quite obviously they failed"

"What has this to do with my client?" Gomez waved a hand Hernandez' way. "He obviously had nothing to do with it, given he was in your custody" Sharon leaned forward.

"Your client's incarceration did not stop him passing a message through your office Mister Gomez, a call was placed to Detective Sergeant Kennedy at Robbery / Homicide, the same person captured on that tape we watched" I noticed Gomez looked surprised for a moment before rallying.

"I have done nothing wrong, I am expected to work in my client's best interests" Brenda leaned forward, far over the table.

"Yes Mister Gomez, which is why I am not arresting you for conspiracy to commit murder, it'd be too hard to get it to stick in court, not that I don't want to, I'd dearly love to see you decorating the cell next to your client here" She leaned back with obvious effort as Sharon continued in that cool, calm voice.

"Following that phone call the main conspirators met privately" She frowned. "The following day, the night before last in fact, there was an ambush, another attempt on our lives" Sharon made an off hand gesture. "They failed, at the cost of six dead assailants while we remain unharmed" Brenda jumped in.

"That's right Mister Hernandez, you and your friends tried three times and they missed, again" Gomez immediately jumped in.

"There is nothing you have that can tie my client…"

"Oh shut up!" It was Brenda; she'd obviously had enough, ignoring Gomez to stare at Hernandez. "We have already arrested Kennedy, Powell and the others, they're all in holding right here in this building" I didn't miss the tightening around Hernandez' eyes as Sharon nodded and jumped in.

"You will have plenty of opportunity to meet up with them, after all you'll all be going on trial for criminal conspiracy to commit murder, plus a vast array of other charges" Gomez leaned forward, sneering.

"What other charges, I was not informed of any other charges?" Brenda threw him an insolent smile and replied.

"The list of charges is growing by the day, once our other suspects starts singing, one of them already has, the others will soon enough, let me assure you of that little fact, after all who really wants to go away for life, we'll be adding a whole passel of other charges, don't you worry bout that" She turned her attention back to Hernandez. "So you see Mister Hernandez, any chance you might have to cut deals and avoid life is rapidly going to go away, once one of the others decides to look out for number one, turn on their co-conspirators and cut a deal of their own" Sharon followed up before Gomez could speak.

"The choice is your Mister Hernandez, the first one to break ranks gets the prize, a chance to cut a deal with the DA and get a reduced sentence, while the rest get to spend the rest of their lives in jail, enjoying very sub-standard accommodations with extremely sub-standard neighbors" Brenda was looking at Sharon, nodding slowly as she spoke, before slowly turning her head to face Hernandez and speaking.

"Your call Mister Hernandez, take it or leave it" She shrugged, a little theatrically and continued. "As I said before, I don't really care either way, but it's up to you" Gomez reached out and laid his hand over Hernandez arm, speaking as he did.

"My client will defend himself against these trumped-up charges, there will be no deal"

Brenda and Sharon both sat there impassively, though I noticed Brenda's left eyebrow and Sharon's right both lifted in unconscious, skeptical unison, given the way they were both facing Hernandez there was no way they could have known what the other was doing, it was just completely unconscious, making me wonder if it was something one had picked up from the other since they'd got together as I carefully buried a smile.

"No deal, well if that's the way it is, that's just the way it is" Brenda shrugged. "I suppose we should just toss you back into holding then, seeing as you're not planning to talk" I glanced up and exchanged a look with Jane as Brenda continued. "It'll give you plenty or time to consider two things Mister Hernandez. The first is that you will be spending the rest of your life in jail, at best you'll not be released until you are almost seventy years old, that's if you are ever released" She made an off hand gesture as she continued. "Me, I'd do almost anything to avoid that, including cutting a deal but that's just me" She held up a hand before Gomez could speak. "Yeah, yeah, no deal, I heard you" Turning her attention back to Hernandez she continued. "The second thing you should think about is what your friend here is going to report back to his and your employer back in Mexico. That you've been offered a deal in return for testimony" She smiled. "You know what they're like, how they think, I wonder how that'll play down south Mister Hernandez?" Gomez spoke, anger suffusing his words.

"That is enough, this is blatant harassment of my client, this interview is over and I will be lodging the strongest formal protest, plus a harassment suit, against you..." He glanced at Sharon "...her and the rest of the LAPD"

"Go right ahead" Brenda looked from him to Hernandez and stared at him. The silence dragged on for several very long moments before Brenda shook her head slowly and Sharon shrugged gently, then glanced up at me and spoke.

"Mister Hernandez, I'd like you to meet Special Agent Romanov of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Agent Romanov" I nodded and took a half step forward as Gomez and Hernandez both turned their heads to look at me; Brenda had made her offer and it had been rebuffed, it was my turn now.

"Mister Hernandez, as personally disagreeable and distasteful as it is for me to have to do this, I have been authorised to offer you immunity and a new identity in exchange for complete cooperation with the bureau and the LAPD on all aspects of the Sinaloa Cartel" Gomez jumped to his feet and turned to Hernandez, his voice rising even as he spoke, Sanchez' voice in our ears translating his words.

"_Say nothing; I'm warning you, say nothing…_" Brenda looked across at the lawyer

"Sit down, sit down now Mister Gomez" Ignoring her he kept going.

"_If you say or do anything to help them, you are a dead man; you know the penalty for traitors_" Sharon's voice was calm, with the barest tinge of humor shading it.

"Dear oh dear it appears that your lawyer doesn't necessarily have your best interests at heart at all Mister Hernandez" She shrugged. "I wonder if that's because you're not the one paying his retainer?" Brenda smacked her hand down on the tabletop, grabbing both Hernandez and his lawyer's attention.

"Sit down now Mister Gomez, before I have you thrown out" Gomez stared at Hernandez for a few seconds longer then carefully sat, muttering something under his breath that the microphone's didn't catch, at least I guessed that was why Buzz and Sanchez didn't translate it. With some silence at last I started again.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted Mister Hernandez, the Department of Justice is prepared to offer you immunity and induction into the Witness Protection program in return for your cooperation in divulging everything…Everything you know about the Sinaloa Cartel and in particular the actions of the members of the LAPD's Robbery / Homicide division that you have had dealings with" Hernandez sat there unmoving as Gomez turned a filthy stare at his supposed 'client', making it obvious whose hands were on his strings. Who knows, if Gomez said something really stupid we might get him on charges as well. The room was silent for some ten or fifteen seconds before I spoke up again.

"You have a choice" I shrugged. "Stay loyal to Sinaloa, no matter how misguided that loyalty might be, and rot in prison for life, unless Sinaloa decides to have you killed to keep you quiet, or take the deal while it's still on the table" I shook my head. "I'm hardly an unbiased observer, I was one of the people on your list to be killed so as far as I care go ahead and say nothing, go to jail for life and rot there, die of old age in jail or be killed in there before you can talk. I'm happy enough with either of those options too" Ignoring me Gomez spoke rapidly to Hernandez.

"_I'm warning you, keep your mouth shut_" Gomez words broke Hernandez out of his reverie, looking up at me.

"You expect me to trust you?" before I could reply Brenda shook her head and spoke quietly.

"No, I expect you to do whatever's in your best interest" Sharon tilted her head to regard him.

"If that means you spend however much of whatever's left of your life behind bars, well, like Deputy Chief Johnson and Agent Romanov here I was on the list of people to be killed by your assassins, so I won't be too upset to see you die old and forgotten after a life spent rotting in jail" Brenda jumped in, her voice full of cheer.

"You can imagine just how well news that you've been offered a deal by the Bureau for immunity and new life will play out south of the border to your bosses Mister Hernandez, that's something you should probably think about as well" Gomez turned to face Hernandez and spoke.

"_They are attempting to frighten you, say nothing, I am warning you..._" I shook my head.

"You're supposed to be advising your client on his best course of action Counselor, at the moment though you seem to be a bigger threat to his welfare than we are" Hernandez looked up at me and spoke quietly.

"Your life was at risk, why would you offer me a deal?" I shrugged.

"Your testimony will clear up a leak in the Justice Department, help solve at least six murders and send the people responsible to jail for life" I pulled a face. "I'd like to see you rot right there with them but I was asked to secure you a deal in return for immunity and a new life" I shook my head. "Unfortunately for me but fortunately for you my bosses agreed to the deal" Sharon spoke up.

"Now the choice is up to you Mister Hernandez, accept the deal or put your life in the hands of the cartel, we all know about their tender mercies" Gomez turned and stared at Hernandez then spoke.

"_You do this and you know the result, what will happen to you_" Hernandez stared back at Gomez then turned to look at me.

"Why should I trust you?" I shrugged and answered as simply as I could, spelling it out.

"That's your call, but it's up to you. Who do you trust, the US government to keep its word or the cartel to silence you?" The room was silent for about ten seconds before Hernandez looked up at me and spoke.

"I accept your offer, and your word" I nodded, not completely happy with the result, I wanted him to rot for what he'd done, but we had a case to win. Brenda nodded and spoke up.

"In this case do you still want Mister Gomez here to represent you, especially given who he's really reporting to?" Hernandez shook his head, which was all Brenda needed, turning to Jane. "Detective Rizzoli, would you be kind enough to escort Mister Gomez out of this room and more importantly, out of my sight" Jane levered herself off the wall, her wolfish smile letting Gomez know how much she was hoping he'd cause her trouble, to the man's credit he wasn't a complete idiot. He stood, grabbing his briefcase and looking down at Brenda, his voice angry.

"I will lodge a formal protest with the District Attorney's office about this" Brenda shrugged, unconcerned as Sharon replied.

"Go right ahead, in fact Assistant District Attorney Hobbs is watching this from close by, feel free to take it up with her" Brenda glanced at Sharon then back to Gomez.

"I don't care either way but get him the hell out of here" Jane took a step forward and grabbed him by the bicep, Hernandez tried to shake her off but Jane's grip was solid, instead she turned him towards the door as I stepped over to it and held it open, revealing Andy Flynn waiting on the other side. Gomez twisted his head to see Hernandez, his voice full of anger, something that Sanchez's translation didn't quite convey.

"_You are a dead man, you will not live long enough to talk_" At the translation Brenda and Sharon exchanged as small smile before Sharon spoke.

"Detective Rizzoli, there's been a change of plans. Please take Mister Gomez here and deliver him to ADA Hobbs as I'd like him charged with making threats to Mister Hernandez' life" Jane smiled, her smile widening as I spoke up.

"You can add threatening a Federal Government witness to the charges" Jane and Andy both nodded as Gomez spluttered.

"You cannot do this" Jane was unbothered by his outburst as she pushed him through the door.

"Just watch me" I closed the door on whatever he had to say and turned back to see Hernandez sitting there, looking small and a bit shattered; his entire life had just changed in a single minute, leaving him staring into the unknown. He was silent for a while, then looked up at me and finally spoke.

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything Mister Hernandez, why don't you start at the beginning, how did this all start?" He sat there for a moment, face impassive, but his eyes told a different story, full of indecision, reflecting the choices he was about to make. Finally they cleared as he looked up at us, he'd already made his decision, now he'd come to terms with it and realised he'd thrown his lot in with us, he had to come clean.

"We were contacted by your Sergeant Kennedy, he had travelled to Culiacan to seek us out, he said he had a proposition that we would be interested in and wanted to talk" I buried a smile and leaned back against the wall as I listened, Hernandez words were like the hammerblows of nails being driven into the coffins of Kennedy and the rest.

There'd be a lot of work between now and a trial but we'd just made our case.


	84. Chapter 84

**A/N **Merry Christmas everyone, well it is Christmas morning here, though I realise for people on the other side of the date line you have another day to go.

I hope that Christmas finds you with friends, family and loved ones, surrounded by all that brings you joy, and that you have a happy, joyous and above all safe Christmas New year, and that 2016 brings you all you could wish for.

This particular story is winding to an end, the bad guy's plot is unravelling, our heroes are safe and winding down from the stress and I hope to end this story on a happy, upbeat note.

Once this is complete, where then?

I have an Intersecting Lines universe short story of six chapters or so I will be posting over on the L&amp;O: SVU page here at FF that deals with Liv and Alex spending a weekend with Liv's old partner Kate Beckett and her partner Rick Castle up at their Hampton's house. It's fun and fluffy and helps fill in some of the backstory there.

This will be followed by a bridging story called 'Breaking Barriers', it ties together what's been happening in New York between Intersecting Lines Book 2 and Book 3, it's really Olivia's story, but it also features Alex (naturally), Kate Beckett and her team from Castle and Mac Taylor and his team from CSI: New York. That story, on the L&amp;O: SVU page will end just after Intersecting Lines Book 3 starts and plays a significant part in events in that story.

Yes there will be a Book 3, it will deal with a nationwide-spanning case that will draw in people from just about every cop show you can imagine, though the focus will of course remain on Mara, Jane and their closest friends and be centred on Los Angeles.

Once that finishes there will be a Book 4, though it will be a much smaller tale, dealing with the marriage of Jane and Maura, before the assembled audience of their friends and family, that one will be fluffy and light, to counter the darkness of Book 3.

There will be other stories in the universe, more chapters in Intersecting Lines: Possession and Passion, in Intersecting Lines: Drabbles and stand-alone stories as well.

Apart from that I have Once Upon A Time stories involving Swan Queen, another few stories in the Arrow Verse featuring Felicity and Laurel, and all sorts of other stories as well.

Thank you so much for following me on this journey, I like to think you are enjoying the stories I write and hope that you will join me on the rest of our voyage together.

Merry Christmas, may this season be full of blessings and the New Year all you could hope for.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**84 Hunting Humphries**

Jane's viewpoint

It was early morning and we were standing round the murder room, staring at the board full of all the information we'd amassed, looking for something more. Now that the case was finally out in the open we'd finally been able to bring everything out into public view and lay it up on three whiteboards, looking for holes and new clues; we might have the suspects in custody but we needed that something more to make sure they went away for life.

Right now I was staring at the far right end of the long timeline that started with the murders of the first two Witsec guys almost two years ago. There were a lot of holes in the timeline but we were hoping that Hernandez would help fill in some of those gaps, whenever the Feds deigned to pass that info across that is. They'd wisked him away for 'debriefing' almost as soon as he'd agreed to talk, long before he'd answered more than a few of the most pressing questions, leaving us all frustrated. The involvement of the Feds was something I usually associated with never seeing anything useful out of a witness ever again.

My relationship with the Bureau and the rest of the federal government wasn't all that great based on my past experiences, this time however Ana was on our side and I trusted her way more than I distrusted the Feds, she'd promised we'd get as much of the debrief as she could and so I'd wait till she got it for us.

She'd just left for a meeting with the agents doing the Hernandez debrief but not before I'd laughed myself silly at her, she'd dressed like the Fed from central casting, hair in a tight bun, black pants suit, black heels, crisp white oxford and to top it all off a set of black Ray Bans instead of her usual metallic blue reflective aviators. I'd taken one look at her and immediately changed her ring tone on my phone to Will Smith's Men in Black; playing it had gotten me a filthy look before she'd shrugged and smiled a little sheepishly, muttering something about dressing to fit in then left for her meeting.

Brenda and Sharon were briefing Pope right about now, he'd returned from New Orleans breathing fire and smoke, not a happy man at all, apparently the footage of the shootout had been the topic of conversation throughout the conference and Pope had been left looking kinda silly for not being across it. Now he was back and wanted answers, it made me relieved and awfully glad that it wasn't me in what was sure to be a tense and uncomfortable discussion.

Sitting here now I was running my eye back and forward over the timeline, looking for god knows what when I decided I needed some caffeine to keep my brain running. Sanchez must have seen me grab my cup cause I saw him jump up and grab his, following me out to the kitchen.

"Hey Rizzoli?" I turned to see him standing there in the doorway.

"Hey Sanchez" He nodded, a little sheepishly and then spoke.

"Just wanted to thank you for the talk we had, about Diego, my nephew" I nodded, remembering the stakeout at Sharon's place.

"Your welcome, hope it helped" He nodded.

"I went and had a beer with him and we talked it over" He shrugged. "The whole cool uncle thing" I smiled at the thought and replied.

"How'd that go" He gave me a lopsided smile.

"I think I surprised him, I dunno, I don't think he was expecting, y'know, acceptance or good advice" I nodded, wondering if things could have worked out different for me if I'd had a cool uncle like Sanchez to talk to. Maybe not, that would have required me to open up about how I felt about Maura and honestly I'd been way too confused to talk about that with anyone.

"So what happens now?" Sanchez shrugged.

"Don't know. He's thinking it over, working out what he's gonna do" I nodded.

"Sounds like it went as well as you could have hoped. He asked, you listened, you gave him some advice and he's giving it some thought"

"Yeah, thanks, I appreciated it, the talk I mean" I nodded graciously.

"No problem Sanchez, happy to help" I smiled. "If he decides to stick with girls though, send him my way, I can give him tips" I got a look that was pure skepticism, reflected in his voice.

"He's already pulling all the chicka's he can handle, why the hell he'd wanna talk to you for?" I smiled a little nastily.

"Good advice, I mean have you seen my fiancé?" That got me an eye-roll.

"What I've seen is that you're full of shit Rizzoli" I flashed him the biggest shit-eating grin I could muster.

"And you love me for it"

"Now you're delusional as well" I smiled, understanding what he wasn't saying. Grabbing my now full cup I went to walk out when he stopped me, surprising the hell out of me. "Thanks Jane, I really appreciate it" I glanced at him and nodded once as I felt a smile break out at his words.

"Anytime Julio" And then, because I'm a natural wise ass with a big mouth... "Make an appointment next time and bring cash, quality relationship counselling ain't cheap" Sanchez just grinned as he flipped me the bird before I walked out of the kitchen and made my way back to my desk, feeling a little bit better than I had when I'd walked out.

I'd been sitting back at my desk for a few minutes, sipping the coffee as I turned my attention back to the timeline on the murder boards when Mike Tao wandered over and propped himself against my desk; I liked Mike, he reminded me a lot of Frost, he was our resident techno-nerd and a really good guy, just like Frost.

"Whatcha looking for Jane?" I looked round at him.

"Trying to work out the sequence for those gangers who came after us, not the Barrio Bangers, the Hispanic gangers who went after Maura and the Chief and the Commander" He nodded and turned his attention to the boards and spoke.

"In what way exactly, what's missing?" I frowned as I stared back at the board, it wasn't cooperating

"It's Humphries right? We know she was likely the go between, she had the connection to the gang task force and we've sorta tied her to the convoy ambush but I'm trying to work out the links" He turned his attention to the board and we sat there for almost a minute in companionable silence before I continued.

"I'm seeing gaps where she was off the grid and we can't account for her, what are you thinking?" I levered myself out of my chair and walked over to the board, grabbing a whiteboard marker, green cause I like green. I crouched down and made a few notations on the timeline to signify the timing of Humphries interaction with the Barrio Bangers, then stood up again. I tapped the timeline a way over to the left. "I'm trying to work out when she contacted the other gang, the...Los Lobos del Muerte" I shook my head for a second. "The Death Wolves…really, where the hell do they get these names?" He smiled.

"Sounds like a second rate supervillain group, the sort that turn up out of nowhere for the Avengers or Justice League to beat up, y'know disposable villains of the week" I snuck a peek at him from the corner of my eye to see a sly sorta smile there, he was yanking my chain in his uber-geeky way. Ignoring him I pressed on.

"Anyway, Humphries must have bribed them to come after us" He favoured me with a skeptical look and asked the question.

"What makes you say that?" I shrugged.

"Well she had to offer the Barrio Bangers fifty thousand, including twenty five thousand up front and they had a recent history with us, the Lobos didn't so she had to have paid them even more to try something so close to the Parker Centre" He glanced back at the timeline then spoke.

"Makes sense, go on"

"How much did Humphries have? She paid the Bangers twenty five thousand in advance with the promise of the same again if they got it right, so you have to assume the Lobos wanted at least that much, if not more" I turned to look at him. "So you have to assume she had a pile of money available, which begs the question just how many jobs she did for Sinaloa and exactly just how much they were paying." He frowned as he thought about it, his head tilting as he stared it the board, not seeing it, his eyes were miles away, probably wishing we had Hernandez here to question. Finally he nodded once and spoke.

"What's the thing they always tell you in white collar crime?" I raised my eyes and waited as he smiled. "Follow the money trail" I shrugged.

"We tried remember, we can't really account for her cash" He smiled a little wider.

"No, but the Lobos and the Barrio Bangers can" I thought about it for a moment then nodded.

"That's a plan I can get behind"

Ninety minutes later and we'd already found out something disturbing. A quick chat to Three Dub in his hospital bed had led us to Shaylene Phillips, the girlfriend of Julius Freeman, the interim leader of the Bangers after we'd arrested his predecessor, Stoner. Freeman was now taking up space in a refrigerated drawer downstairs on Maura's floor and Phillips had apparently been holding their cash while the gang did the job and then decided what to do with it afterwards. Unfortunately someone else had got to her first, we could hear a baby screaming even before we kicked the door in, finding Phillips sprawled out dead in her living room from two GSWs to the chest while her baby cried in a crib nearby.

We cleared the house then Mike called it in, asking despatch for the usual support and an urgent Child Services worker as I picked up the kid who apparently needed a bottle and a diaper change, fortunately Ramon was a whiz at both and had her changed in nothing flat, apparently he had two of his own at home. Once she'd had both she calmed down enough to lie quietly as Tao looked around and I examined our vic, dead for less than 36 hours was my guess, something Maura confirmed almost immediately once she arrived, just after Child Services left with the baby in an ambulance to get her checked out at the hospital. We searched everywhere but there was no sign of forced entry and no money anywhere. That sent us back to square one, as Tao and I looked at each other, I shook my head and thought out loud.

"No forced entry, she either knew each the other person or..." Mike nodded.

"Or it was someone she let in without a struggle" I scowled; I'd seen this before, back in the reports of some of the Witsec protectees who'd been killed.

"What's the bet Humphries turned up, flashed her badge and got in, then killed Phillips and grabbed the money" He frowned for a moment.

"Not one of the gang?" I shook my head.

"Most of the Barrio Bangers are now either in hiding, in jail or dead. Besides, the gang already had the money and trusted her to look after it so why kill her for it?" He thought that over then looked up.

"Lets assume for the sake of the argument that you're right and it was Humphries, how'd she know the money was here?" I paused, that was a damned good question.

"I don't know, but my guts telling me she did it, I just have to find out how" He nodded slowly.

"The TOD says it was after the ambush failed, sometime after midnight in fact so Humphries pays Freeman to do the ambush, finds out they missed and comes for her money..." I nodded, it made sense.

"But how did she know to come here?" He shrugged.

"Dunno, but assume she was here late the night before last, she didn't have all that much time to ditch the cash, I mean she was at work before eight, so assume she left for work before seven" I nodded, it wasn't all that much time to get careful about stashing the cash, looking over at him I nodded and spoke.

"We need to go have a look around Humphries' place"

Forty minutes later and we were walking into Humphries' condo. There was a black and white parked outside but no one had been through her place yet, too much to do and not enough resources. The uniformed cops watched as we popped the locks and walked inside, gloves already on. It didn't take us long to find stuff, with a big baggie of coke in her bedside table and residue on the dresser, the kitchen bench and in the bathroom. Ramon was the first to comment.

"Wow, she likes the stuff" I nodded at his observation as we snooped around, it took forty-five minutes but by the time we'd finished we'd found nothing. We wrapped up and were on our way out when Mike suddenly stopped, causing me to pause.

"What?" He looked round.

"She lives in 211 right?' I nodded, watching as he pointed towards a parking spot marked 211 holding a red Mazda Miata. I nodded and turned round, heading back up stairs and entering Humphries place, within thirty seconds I'd found what I was looking for, a set of Mazda keys and was on my way back down stairs. Less than a minute later we were looking at a black duffel bag in the trunk, exchanging a glance before I unzipped it, revealing a silver metal attache case, a small black drawstring cloth bag and a plastic shopping bag containing several pairs of latex gloves. I reached out and snagged the black bag as he popped the attache case open, revealing a thick layer of 50 and 100 dollar bills.

"Holy crap!" I nodded as he continued. "That's the second time in a couple of weeks we've opened a box and found a fortune in cash" I smiled a little lopsidedly, he was right, as Ramon looked at me a little strangely and spoke up.

"This sort of thing happens regularly to you?" I nodded.

"Too bad we don't get a finders fee" He smiled at my quip then stilled as I reached into the bag and pulled out a 9 mill pistol, getting a respectful nod from Ramon and a quiet 'damn' from Tao. I shot him a glance and a tight smile before reaching in again and retrieving a silencer, summing it up with one word.

"Bingo"

Four hours later and we were back in the murder room, waiting on the ballistics reports as we watched Mike do his tech thing. In addition to the attache case and gun, we'd also found a hand held GPS tracker in the car, synched to a locator we'd worked out was located inside the case. Mike was smiling as he sat back after downloading the trackers logs.

"Since the tracker was bought just over a week ago it's only been a couple of locations. Obviously Humphries' condo plus a car park near the Barrio Bangers turf, their headquarters and Shaylene Phillips' apartment" We nodded, that placed Humphries at the scene of the crime, as we'd found her prints on both the tracker and the locator. "The other location is almost a week ago, just after she bought the tracker. It moves from Humphries place to a location down in Boyle Heights, which is smack bang in the middle of the Lobo's turf. It moves around a bit for two days then settles at a location in the middle of El Sereno. Then it travels back to Humphries place and stays there until a few days ago" Mike, David, Julio and I passed looks back and forward before David spoke.

"Let me guess, the timing is around the same time as the attacks on the Doc, the Chief and the Commander right?" Mike nodded.

"Got it in one" Julio frowned then spoke.

"Do we know who lives at the address it was at for those two days?" Mike turned the monitor round to show us the details.

"It's a rental, the name on the agreement is for an Adrian Rocha, now deceased" I lifted an eyebrow at him and asked the obvious question.

"Deceased?" He smiled.

"Yep, he was the leader of Los Lobos, the Chief put a bullet through his head when they tried that drive-by downstairs" David nodded.

"So assume Humphries hands the money over, Los Lobos' fumble the job and she goes back for the money, tracks it down, retrieves the cash and leaves"

"Almost certainly correct Detective Gabriel" We turned to see Maura standing behind us smiling as I smiled back, I couldn't help it, she was wearing a deep crimson dress that did nice things to her figure, matched with a set of new shoes she looked beautiful. I'd watched her get dressed in it on the boat this morning, we'd agreed the night before that last night would probably be our last night on the boat, we'd be able to sleep in our own beds tonight, so we'd farewelled the boat in fine style last night and again this morning. I was looking forward to celebrating getting back home tonight and we had a big day planned for tomorrow.

"Hey Maur, got something for us?" She nodded and sashayed over as we made space for her.

"Ballistics matched the pistol you found to the bullets I retrieved from Shaylene Phillips body" She smiled a little wider. "The ballistics also matches an open investigation into a fatal shooting which took place in the El Sereno district several days ago. A woman named Cristina Rocha was found dead in a rented apartment" Maura looked over at me as she spoke. "Based on decomposition time of death was a window of between four and six days ago" I smiled a little grimly.

"Right in the same time frame as the GPS put the money at that location" Maura nodded.

"Unless I am mistaken you have a circumstantial case that Detective Humphries was at both locations when both victims were killed with the same weapon" She glanced around at us all. "Whilst neither a lawyer nor a detective, I believe you have motive and opportunity" There was an outbreak of smiles at her words before Sanchez spoke.

"If you're looking for a transfer to detective, I'm sure we can find a spot here for you" Gabriel jumped in.

"Maybe a job swap, you come and work with us and Jane gets to cut open dead people downstairs" The grin that broke out on Maura's face was beautiful to see.

"Thank you Detective Gabriel, but perhaps we can extend the opportunity to all of the Major Crimes team. Perhaps you should conduct the first autopsy, I have a victim who apparently jumped from the platform under a fast moving commuter train, fortunately transit police were able to retrieve most of the body parts. They are downstairs in several bags awaiting reassembly" As she spoke David was getting greener and greener, he'd always been unsettled by loose body parts, something Maura was well aware of.

"Ah no thanks Doc, thanks for the offer but just no" There was an outburst of laughter at his hasty response before Mike spoke up.

"I think we all agree, we'd like you to stay right where you are doc, we like things just the way they are" There was general agreement at that, even as I saw Maura's cheeks redden slightly at the knowledge that people here respected and admired her and wanted her to stay in their lives. I shrugged and gave her an out.

"Probably a good thing, I don't wanna cut open dead people and anyway, I can't see Maura chasing down perps in her Jimmy Choo's" I saw the sparkle in her eyes return at that, even as I continued. "So neither of us is going anywhere" Gabriel just had to jump in.

"Besides, given how you dress is kinda part of who you are, I can't see Jane here rocking the doc's Blahnick's and Dior and Vera Wang" He paused at the glare I was giving him. "What?" Maura smiled and helped him out.

"While your knowledge of woman's high end fashion is impressive Detective, I believe that Jane's sense of fashion is as integral to her sense of self as the clothes I wear are to my own, therefore I believe that neither Jane nor I are in any hurry to be anywhere but here" Mike Tao smiled as he spoke.

"And that's just the way we like it"


	85. Chapter 85

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**85 Pope Arrives**

Sharon's viewpoint

It was early morning and Brenda and I were sitting in Pope's office, listening to him whine, just as we had for the last fifteen minutes. He was saying the same thing he'd repeated, in different forms, for much of that time.

"You were supposed to keep it quiet" I glanced at Brenda then took that one.

"We did, the only reason it broke was because the suspects arranged multiple attempts on our lives, most recently in one of Los Angeles' most public shoot-outs in years" He wasn't mollified, he kept coming back to it again and again like a dog with a favourite bone. Come to think of it, with those jowls he did look a little like a sad bulldog.

"I told you to keep a lid on it for god's sake" Brenda snorted quietly, attracting Pope's attention off me and onto her as she leaned forward and spoke, a little insolence creeping into her tone, not that I blamed her, Pope here was acting like a spoiled brat.

"Forgive me Chief for making things difficult for you, but I will point out that having three attempts on our lives in five days made 'keeping a lid on it' as you put it, just a little difficult" I pushed back as well.

"In accordance with your wishes, we had successfully kept the previous two attempts out of the news" I shrugged and continued. "It wasn't our choice that the last attempt was an ambush on a street corner in full view of every member of the public with a cell phone" Pope wasn't listening, or didn't want to.

"I have the Mayor's office screaming at me, demanding answers" I looked across to Brenda who shrugged then handled that one.

"You can tell them that we have the suspects in custody, that we expect a whole passle of charges to be laid and we'll in all likelyhood be closing a significant number of other unsolved cases" That finally caught his attention.

"How many cases are we talking about anyway?" Brenda sat back and spoke.

"We're still awaiting all the details from the Federal agents interrogating the cartel's man, Hernandez, so we can't be sure just yet, but we've got Humphries dead to rights on two seperate murders plus conspiracy to commit by bribing the Barrio Bangers to come after us" She held her hands out in a 'who knows' gesture. "We may also be able to tie her to getting the first gang to come after us as well, which was the drive-by outside this very building" Pope looked unconvinced.

"And what about the others?" I spoke up, drawing his attention away from Brenda.

"We are not exactly sure, however we have Osmond and Farrar on at least one kidnapping that led to the victim's death and possibly more besides" Brenda jumped back in.

"Plus the conspiracy to commit charges as well" He nodded once then spoke.

"What about Di Marco, Powell and Kennedy?" I shrugged.

"Twelve counts of conspiracy to commit murder plus a bunch of lesser crimes, that's for starters, hopefully we'll be able to conclusively tie them in to the Witsec killings" Pope was obviously unsatisfied.

"You hope?" He scowled. "I 'hope' you can do better than that" Unfazed Brenda took that one on, speaking confidently.

"Well none of them have really talked except Hammond and she wasn't really aware of everything that they were doing" She pursed her lips for a moment then continued. "I think Kennedy only trusted her so far, she was kept at arms length from a lot of what they did, she provided them with the information on the Witsec people and they then acted on it, for which she received ten thousand dollars a time." She tipped her head to one side and regarded him. "She knew in general terms what the others were doing, but not specifics" I stepped in, backing Brenda up.

"We expect that Hernandez, as their liaison to the cartel and the person handling payments, has a much better idea of what they were doing" Brenda jumped back in as we tag-teamed him.

"Unfortunately the Feds won't let us interrogate him ourselves, so we're kinda stuck waiting for them to offer up whatever they get" Pope frowned even harder, making me wonder what would happen if he stuck like that. Finally he looked at us both and spoke.

"That isn't particularly helpful" We both nodded as I saw a chance to divert Pope's foul temper from us, no matter how little we deserved it.

"On that, perhaps a word from you to Director Martinez might make the Bureau a little more cooperative" His eyes settled on me as an eyebrow rose, finally he spoke, his voice carrying a touch of sarcasm.

"Really, that's what you're going with?" I shrugged, trying not to let him get to me.

"Well, he can ignore the Chief and I but not you, not in the same way, so perhaps you can get the traction we can't" Brenda saw what I was doing and jumped in; she had my back, like always.

"Besides, they owe us. If it wasn't for us they'd still have a conduit from the Witsec program here in LA straight back to the cartel" He shook his head once.

"Given the extent of the leak and the damage to Justice's reputation, I doubt he's looking to thank us" I shrugged, a little offhand.

"It's not our problem that their local office wasn't following proper protocols and procedures" Brenda nodded and spoke up.

"Thanks to this investigation, the leak at Justice is plugged, the people responsible are in custody and they have a bright, shiny new witness against Sinaloa that they'll get all sorts of useful information from" She smiled, all guiless and bright and as false as a three dollar bill. "They should be grateful for all our help an all" Pope wasn't buying it for a minute.

"I'm sure that Justice will thank you when they're explaining this mess to the Senate Oversight Committee" Brenda, having given Pope something to think about changed the subject.

"We still have Detective Osmond to work on as well, I believe he might be a little more amenable to pressure" Pope looked over, a quizzical expression on his face.

"How so?" Brenda shrugged and spoke.

"I was looking for leverage and remembered that he was reputed to be an avid church-goer" She pulled a face." Just what you'd expect from a corrupt cop and murderer" Brenda sighed and pushed on "So I had a talk to his Pastor; Osmond and his wife were both active members of what turns out to be a fairly fundamentalist evangelical church, they're big on the whole fire and brimstone side of Christianity, so I'm hoping to turn that on Osmond" Pope was unimpressed.

"I hope for all your sakes that you get him to roll over" I handled that one.

"Well, one of the few things we did manage to get out of Hernandez before the Bureau whisked him away was that Kennedy had arranged for Osmond and Farrar to carry out the kidnapping of Carmen Ortiz" At his blank look I clarified. "The former cartel book keeper that was handed back to them, she was tortured and killed, very, very unpleasantly by the cartel I might add" Brenda nodded and spoke up.

"We have enough information on that to hopefully leverage Osmond into rolling over" Pope frowned.

"In exchange for cutting a deal?" I shook my head as Brenda did the same before I spoke.

"I don't want to give any deals to these people, Hernandez was one too many but we really had no choice" Pope nodded one.

"Agreed, make no more deals" I worked hard to keep a snarl inside, the fatuous bastard, he'd done nothing but dither before and now he was making pronouncements like he mattered. As far as I was concerned when it came to this case he needed to get the hell out of the way. Brenda obviously felt the same; I could hear it in her tone.

"It's not our intention to let any of these people get a deal. Hernandez was the exception, but I want the rest of these corrupt officers to go away for the rest of their miserable lives" She shifted in her chair. "That includes making sure the DA's office doesn't enter into plea bargains with them to ensure a conviction" Pope looked away for a moment then spoke.

"That's a call for the District Attorney to make, not us" I frowned at that comment, but Brenda was a lot less happy about it, and said so.

"The DA had better not consider letting any of them off the hook. I want them convicted and sentenced on their merits, not cause it was easier or cheaper for him"

"Like I said, that's a call for the DA" Brenda and I exchanged a look, Pope wouldn't back us on this, we might have to take up Natalie's offer to have a chat to the media about the case, she'd said she could make sure enough got out to the media to enrage public opinion. While not something we'd ever done, it would make it very close to impossible for the DA to cut deals with the public baying for their heads. Pope must have realised we were pissed as he changed the subject abruptly.

"I have a whole raft of complaints on my desk from Commander Taylor" I exchanged a glance with Brenda as Pope tapped a thick Manila folder on his desk then continued. "It seems he's accused you of every offence in the LAPD rule book plus a few more he seems to have invented for the purpose" Brenda was monumentally unconcerned, something that came out in her tone.

"What can I say; the Commander is an ass, an inventive ass I'll grant you, but still an ass" Pope nodded once as did I; we'd finally arrived at a topic we could all agree on. Pope then continued.

"Granted, he's also currently an ass with only half a division, as you've got the other half in custody" He looked up, something that might almost sound like hope in his voice. "You haven't tied him in to anything?" I shook my head.

"Taylor is guilty of a series of crimes against fashion, good taste, decency and morals, but regretably, none of those carry a jail term" Brenda nodded, the sadness obvious in her face and voice.

"It appears that Taylor was blisfully oblivious to what was happening under his watch" She shrugged. "It appears he had a 'whatever it takes' attitude and as long as his people were laying charges and getting convictions he didn't look to closely into exactly what they were doing" Pope shook his head slowly.

"There'll have to be a full investigation into all of the cases that the six people you've arrested were involved in" He frowned, not happy at all. "As you say, Taylor's guilty of stupidity but that's not an offence, otherwise the jails would be full of people" Brenda looked up and asked the question.

"Will he keep his job?" Pope peered at her for a moment, and then sighed.

"At the moment his people have been arrested and charged but not convicted, so I can't really fire him" He frowned. "Given his union connections I'm not sure I could fire him anyway" I shrugged.

"There's sure to be other slots where the Commander's...talents would prove useful" Pope snorted in amusement.

"I wasn't aware that idiocy was in that much demand, but if you think of somewhere let me know" We nodded before he pressed on. "Do we know why they did it?" Brenda and I exchanged a glance, at her small nod I answered.

"Based on what we have learned from Joan Hammond, she and her brother were both motivated by money" I shrugged. "They both wanted more and were looking at some way to earn more. They started discussing what knowledge and skills they had that was salable and came to the conclusion that there were people who would pay for her information" Pope shook his head.

"Unbelievable, it was just like that?" Brenda shrugged.

"Not quite that easy, apparently Kennedy made his way down to Mexico and sought out a Sinaloa contact" She shook her head. "A very brave or very stupid move on his part; fortunately for him, if not for many others, the cartel was willing to talk and he was able to come to an ongoing arrangement with Sinaloa, and the rest is history" Pope sighed.

"All of this, all those deaths, for money" He looked up. "What about the others?" I handled that one.

"It's our belief that Powell covered for Kennedy when one of the killings went wrong and led to an OIS investigation. In return Kennedy brought him into the scheme for a cut of the money" I shrugged. "The others we think were brought in when it became obvious that their OIS investigations were attracting too much attention. Somehow they brought the others into the conspiracy, though Osmond and Farrar seem to have been used for odd jobs, maybe they weren't as trusted as much as Humphries and Di Marco" I exchanged a glance with Brenda then finished up. "There's still a lot we have to learn, hopefully Hernandez can answer a lot of those questions for us"

Pope sat there silent for a long while, digesting what we'd told him, I exchanged a glance with Brenda who raised an eyebrow at me before we both sat back waiting. Eventually Pope came back to us.

"Hard to believe, not just that LAPD officers were killing for the cartel, but that they could recruit other officers to help them" He shook his head again and then looked up. "How are the rest of you, Isles, Deering and the others holding up?"

"Shaken, particularly Natalie, it's her first experience of being shot at, Maura's been through a few similar experiences where her life's been at risk, so she's handling it a bit better" Brenda shrugged, a little helplessly. "Their partners are helping them through it" At his look she continued. "Both Detective Rizzoli and Special Agent Romanov are no strangers to life or death situations, they are handling it much better than I would be, given the circumstances" I nodded.

"The best thing for all of them would be to see the conspirators go to jail for life. With a bit of luck we should be able to make that happen" Pope nodded once then frowned.

"Unless you can get a confession your case will have to be airtight" I nodded and spoke up.

"It will be, but a lot will depend on the prosecutor..." I let that thought hang as Pope looked over at me. Finally he took the bait.

"And...?" I glanced at Brenda and pushed on.

"I'd suggest the department push to have Andrea Hobbs as prosecution lead" Pope nodded slowly as Brenda spoke.

"She'd be a good choice Will, she's good at her job, is intimately familiar with the case thanks to her helping us with it an all, plus she should be good in front of the cameras" Pope frowned at her last comment, then scowled as he thought it through before finally speaking.

"The trial's going to be a media circus, this case is going to be worse than the Rampart scandal" I nodded, cops acting as hired killers for a drug cartel, explosive wasn't too extreme a description as Brenda answered him.

"Well, with Andrea prosecuting and Natalie handling the media, there's a good chance that we can control it" She frowned before continuing. "As much as anyone can with these sorts of things" Pope frowned.

"I'd feel a lot better about this if we had a confession, if all we have is that tape plus circumstantial evidence a good defence lawyer could punch big holes in it" At our scoffing sounds he hastened to clarify his words. "I mean establish doubt in some of the juror's minds" I shook my head as Brenda spoke.

"Let me assure you that by the time we're finished, there isn't going to be a jury anywhere that won't convict them in a heartbeat" I followed up Brenda's comments with my own.

"The evidence, particularly those taped conversations, is pretty well damning right there" I shrugged. "The defence can try all they like but those two tapes will send most of them to life imprisonment on its own" Pope nodded slowly.

"Maybe, but a confession would be better" He looked over at Brenda before continuing, his voice hardening. "That's your specialty, so make it happen"

Thirty seconds later we were outside and waiting for the lift as I turned to look at Brenda and spoke.

"Is it wrong that I sometimes want to pull out my weapon and shoot Pope?" Her laugh was warm and welcome.

"God no sweetie, I feel like that most of the time" We smiled at each other for a moment, both of us glad to be out from under Pope's dismal presence. Finally I asked the question.

"So what do we do with Osmond?" Brenda smiled, confident.

"Give me some time to think about it and set a few things up and then you can help me tear him down together" I nodded.

"I'd like that" Brenda nodded then sidled a little closer.

"So, should I come over to your place tonight?" I smiled, it was good to be home again and even better to have Brenda there.

"Sounds good" As the elevator dinged she glanced at me as we turned to face it.

"Should I bring something to eat?" I laughed; glad to be able to once again.

"Just yourself honey, just yourself"


	86. Chapter 86

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**86 The Breakthrough**

Brenda's viewpoint

We'd had no luck with Powell and Kennedy; they had, on the advice of their lawyers, refused to say anything, no cooperation at all though it really didn't matter all that much. With what we had already plus what I hoped we'd get from the Feds interrogation of Hernandez, they were going away for life, unless the California Legislature decided to allow us to start executing people like them again that is, though I wasn't holding my breath in anticipation of that happening anytime soon.

Di Marco was, on the advice of his lawyer, offering nothing but denials, I'm sure his lawyer was hoping to eventually cut a deal but that'd happen over my dead body, I wanted him to rot in the cell right next to Powell and Kennedy. Besides, I was hoping we'd get enough out of Hernandez to ensure we didn't need his testimony; I didn't want to offer him a deal, none of them in fact.

Humphries on the other hand wasn't interested in a deal; she'd refused to cooperate, to say anything in fact. She'd sat through repeated interrogation sessions, refusing to say a word, it had frustrated her lawyer no end and me even more so, to the point that in my final attempt to get her to open up I'd told Humphries that if that was the way she wanted to play it, she could go to death row without a word spoken, we had enough evidence to send her there without her saying a word. Humphries had just sat there, a half-smile on her face before turning to her lawyer and asking to go back to her cell.

The more I looked into her background, talking to anyone who had known or dealt with her, the more I realised she was a well-hidden sociopath, out for herself and to hell with the rest of the world, how in heaven she'd made it past the Department's psych profilers during recruitment and at the academy was beyond me, but I could take some comfort in the knowledge that she was going away for the rest of her life on multiple counts of murder.

That left me with the lesser lights of Robbery / Homicide, Farrar and in particular one Detective Tony Osmond. He was the youngest of the bunch, less sure of himself, less involved in the conspiracy's decision- making and maybe a little more amenable to pressure. He was also supposedly a devout evangelical Christian, at least according to both his wife and his Pastor, which gave us some leverage. I'd had a long chat with the Pastor; apparently the version of Christianity he preached was heavy on the fire and brimstone with plenty of threats of eternal damnation for sinners so maybe, just maybe we could turn that against Osmond.

Based on the comments he'd made on the SIS surveillance tape we'd seen he hadn't been completely comfortable with the idea of targeting fellow officers, so I intended to use that against him as well, which was why he was now decorating my interview room, together with his lawyer, watched by Mike Tao, when Sharon and I walked in.

"Good morning Detective Osmond, Mister Marsh" I nodded as I pulled out one of the seats across from them, sitting down and getting set up, laying out folders, pens, writing pads and such. In truth I didn't need the props, but the theatre was as much a part of the interrogation as the questions. Osmond sat there, obviously told to say nothing by his union-appointed lawyer. Sharon nodded politely and took up a position at my side, elbows resting on the table top, fingers laced and her chin resting on them, as she coolly regarded Osmond as a scientist might a potentially interesting specimen.

"Chief Johnson" It was Marsh, Osmond's grossly corpulent lawyer. "I understand you are proposing to charge my client with homicide. That's a bit of a stretch, given the lack of motive, body or evidence" I smiled happily.

"Oh I have no doubt we'll be successful in proving those charges Mister Marsh, don't you worry 'bout that" He frowned and sat back, waiting, as I continued. "Mister Osmond here was responsible for the kidnapping of a federally protected person and delivering them to a Mexican drug cartel, where she was killed horribly. Your client will be found guilty of that crime, plus a whole passle of others, never you mind" Marsh narrowed his eyes at me, incidentally increasing his resemblance to a myopic toad, and spoke.

"What other crimes?" Sharon handled that one, her voice cool and clinical.

"Conspiracy to commit murder" She sat very still. "Not just any murders either, but conspiracy to murder six fellow law enforcement officers, including three LAPD officers, two LAPD civilians and a Federal Bureau of Investigations agent" She looked from Osmond to Marsh and back again. "Your client will be sentenced to life imprisonment subject to the California legislature sanctioning the death penalty once more" Marsh was unimpressed as his reply conveyed.

"That is for a jury to decide, not you" Sharon was quietly confident, reflected in her voice.

"Indeed it is and the evidence we will present to them will see your client serve out the rest of his days in jail" Marsh snorted, clearly sceptical.

"I doubt it" I shrugged as I replied.

"Perhaps your client might want to consider his own position. After all a police officer always has a hard time in jail. When it's a police officer accused of working for a Mexican drug cartel and conspiring to have other police officers murdered, than I strongly suggest Mister Osmond here will not enjoy his time in prison all that much" Marsh shrugged, it looked like an earthquake making a mountainside shudder, not a pretty sight at all, before he spoke dismissively.

"That presumes that anyone here is going to jail. Based on what I've heard you have a circumstantial case at best" Sharon slowly tilted her head where it rested on her fingers, as if Osmond and Marsh were somewhat interesting specimens in a display case, then spoke, her voice dispassionate.

"Trust me, the case against Mister Osmond and his co-conspirators is anything but circumstantial and will see them go to jail until they either rot in there or California reinstates the death penalty" Marsh sat back.

"We'll see about that" I copied Sharon's disinterested tone.

"Mister Osmond will be going to jail, of that I can guarantee you. He does however have a choice, he can absolve some of his sins by cooperating and telling us what he knows, or he can say nothing and go to his grave with the knowledge that he refused to take the chance to try and right this wrong" Marsh looked my way and sneered.

"My client doesn't have to say anything and if this fishing expedition is the best chance you have to make your case then your case is sinking before it starts" I had no intention of letting the man get to me.

"I'm hardly fishing Mr Marsh. I have your client on tape taking part in a criminal conspiracy to commit murder" I smiled as widely as I could. "That will play nicely in front of the jury, don't you worry bout that"

"What tape are you talking about? I've seen no tape" I shrugged, trying hard to look unconcerned then smiled.

"Oh really, why don't we look at it now then" With that I indicated the television screen on the wall, which lit up to run the tape of the conspirator's first taped discussion. The room was silent as it ran, the screen going dark after it ended as I turned back to look at them both. Marsh was frowning, obviously looking for a way to minimise the potentially catastrophic damage that would do to his client in front of a jury. Osmond on the other hand was looking down at the table, saying nothing; it was time to push him harder. "As you can see Mister Osmond…" I emphasised the title rather than using his rank to highlight how he wasn't a cop anymore, just a suspect and a murderer. "As you can see the evidence is pretty damning" Marsh shook his head, working hard to build up his indignation.

"That surveillance was carried out right here in headquarters, that's a violation of a whole pile of agreements between the department and the union right there, we'll fight that tape's inclusion all the way…" Sharon interrupted; her voice unruffled.

"Unless sanctioned by a California Supreme Court Judge-signed court order, which this was" She frowned gently. "If that is the best you can do Mister Marsh…" She let her voice trail off, the inference unspoken as I took up the cudgel.

"The six detectives we arrested from Robbery / Homicide will all be charged with multiple counts of homicide or conspiracy to commit homicide. Mister Osmond here is looking at 12 counts of conspiracy to commit, that will send him away for the rest of his life, and that's before we get to the other crimes he's going to be tried for. Marsh looked up, surprised, his voice questioning.

"12 counts, what the hell are you talking about, that's the first I've heard of this charge?" Sharon answered, keeping her voice quiet.

"Three LAPD officers, two LAPD civilians, one FBI agent, plus six civilian employees of Talisman Personal Services, who were acting as protective bodyguards at the time we were attacked"

"I had nothing to do with that" It was Osmond, his voice anguished. "I knew nothing about that" Marsh swung his arm across and laid his hand on Osmond's arm as he shushed him.

"Stay quiet son, they're fishing, if this is the best they've got they have nothing" I raised my eyebrow then shrugged, addressing Osmond.

"Mister Marsh may believe that fallacy Mister Osmond, but don't expect a jury to do so and that's before your involvement in the death of Carmen Ortiz" Sharon nodded and followed up.

"The evidence there will be more than enough to convict you" Marsh frowned before replying.

"We'll see about that, my client was unaware of any of this" I shook my head as Sharon made a small scoffing noise before I spoke up.

"Mister Osmond here allowed himself to be used by Kennedy and Di Marco, they brought him in to take care of the dirty work they didn't want to get their hands bloody with" I glanced over at Sharon who unclasped her hands and slid a folder forward as I continued. "For example, that little kidnapping job Sergeant Kennedy asked you and Detective Farrar to handle for him, a woman named Carmen Ortiz? Her real name was Adoria Moreno; she used to be a bookkeeper for the Sinaloa Cartel before her conscience drove her to turn evidence against them. She handed over her books to the US Government; the resultant investigation cost Sinaloa's leaders hundreds of millions of dollars and sent a number of their people and a larger number of corrupt police and border protection agents to jail" I shook my head slowly. "As you can imagine, the cartel was desperate to get their hands on her, something you allowed to happen" Sharon nodded and spoke up.

"Kennedy and Powell knew what was going to happen to her so they used you to do the job instead" Osmond looked down at the table, unable to meet my eyes as I continued to hammer away at him.

"Did you really not know what they were going to do to her Mister Osmond? Or did you not want to know?" I took his refusal to look up at me as a good sign; maybe his conscience wasn't all that clear. "She fled the Sinaloa and turned evidence against them, what the hell did you think was going to happen Mister Osmond, that they'd welcome her with open arms, throw a welcome home party?" Sharon leaned forward slightly, her expression outwardly calm though I know how angry what had been done to Moreno made her.

"They welcomed her home though, in their own twisted, brutal way. They took her in and raped her; apparently she was raped repeatedly. Raped Mister Osmond; over… and… over… and… over… again" Her voice was cold as ice, her fingernail tapping the surface of the table in time with her words before she flipped the folder in front of her open, revealing a photo taken of what was left of Moreno, it wasn't pretty. "Once they had finished using her for that, Mister Osmond, they tortured her, inflicted horrible pain on her, breaking almost every bone in her body with a sledgehammer before they eventually skinned her; according to the autopsy report she was alive when they started, fortunately she died before they finished" She sighed. "A blessing really" Sharon spun the photo round and shoved it under his nose. "Then they staked her horribly abused body out over an ant's nest, the results, as you can clearly see, were not pretty"

At the first sight of the remains, Osmond turned his head away, obviously unwilling to look at the raw meat and broken bones that was all that had been left of a somewhat plain woman who'd once been someone with a conscience, with hopes and dreams and a new life here in LA, before Osmond and Farrar took that all from her, handing her back to the nightmare she'd fled from. I tapped the photo in front of him, catching his attention as his eyes were drawn to my tapping, widening at the sight in front of him before he quickly looked away again. I wasn't going to let him though, he might think he could ignore his conscience but there was no way in hell I was going to let him ignore me.

"Look at her Mister Osmond, look at what you've done. You delivered that woman to the monsters who did that to her. Her death is on you Mister Osmond, you cannot look away; she died because of you" He was silent but looking shaken which was what I wanted. Marsh leaned forward, placing his hand over the photo.

"Stop badgering my client Chief, you have no right to…"

"No right?" I interrupted, my voice rising. "No right? Mister Osmond here was directly responsible for Miss Moreno ending up like that, I think I have every right to confront your client with his actions" I shook my head. "Lord knows he seems to think he could outrun the consequences of his actions so far" Marsh was unimpressed.

"What evidence do you have for this? All we have is suppositions and speculation unsupported by evidence" I waved his objection away with my hand as I replied.

"I have the testimony of the Sinaloa representative who took delivery of Miss Moreno when Mister Osmond here, together with his partner Mister Farrar handed her over to him for transfer south to Mexico, so let's not quibble about evidence" Marsh sat back, a frown on his face, maybe it was starting to sink in that his client was a lost cause.

I took my glasses off and laid them on the table, rubbing my eyes for a moment, then put them back on, a pre-arranged signal to the squad back in the electronics room, before I stared in on Osmond again.

"Mister Osmond, I know you didn't agree with the killing of fellow police officers, I understand that. It's what makes you different from the rest of them, we've got you on that tape saying that so I know it's true" I was lying through my teeth, he'd agreed with the rest of them that we should be killed, as far as I was concerned he could go rot with the rest of them but right now I wanted him talking.

Osmond looked up at me as I spoke but remained silent, then turned to watch as the door behind me opened and Jane, Maura, Natalie and Ana filed in and took up positions against the wall behind us, facing Osmond. Both Marsh and Osmond's eyes flicked from one to the other as they stood there as I sat back in my chair, giving him time to take them all in. Finally I spoke.

"Do you know who these people are Mister Osmond?" He looked down at the table again, refusing to meet their or my eyes. Marsh leaned forward.

"What sort of petty theatrics are you playing at Johnson?" I ignored him; Osmond was the one I was interested in.

"Let me introduce them to you. From left to right we have Detective Jane Rizzoli from Major Crimes, Doctor Maura Isles, the department's Chief Medical Examiner; next to her is Miss Natalie Dearing, the LAPDs top media person and finally we have Special Agent Anastasia Romanov of the FBI" Once again Osmond's flicked across each of them as I introduced them, his natural curiosity caught by the four beautiful women who'd just walked in. "The reason they are here Mr Osmond is so that you can put a name and a face to each of the six people here who you agreed to have killed" His head jerked like he'd been stung as I pushed on. "If you'd had your way we'd all be dead by now"

"I had nothing to do with that!" Osmond's statement was almost forced out of him, his denial loud in the silent room. Marsh leaned in, no doubt to tell him to say nothing but I overrode him, my voice growing louder as he did, making sure Osmond heard me.

"Yes you did, you discussed having Commander Raydor here and I murdered, agreed to it, then Kennedy went and told the Cartel to have all six of us killed. You were part of that decision" Marsh's chair fell back as he heaved his bulk up, his shout loud in the small room

"That's enough goddamnit" I settled back as Marsh stood there, before he turned to Osmond. "Say nothing son, don't say anything" He turned back to me. "I will not stand for you badgering my client" Sharon's voice was dry as dust.

"Then perhaps you should sit down" He stood there, his eyes jerking from Sharon to me and back again, over and over as we sat there unmoved, before he turned, with Tao's help righting his chair and settling in it again as I started over.

"Mister Osmond. We have you on tape, agreeing to Kennedy contacting a Sinaloa Cartel representative so that we could be killed. We then have Kennedy on tape contracting with the Sinaloa Cartel to not only kill Commander Raydor and I but the four women you see behind me" I turned and gestured behind me, seeing Nat and Maura standing there, Nat in a baby blue pencil skirt and jacket combo with her hands on her hips, Maura in a plum-coloured dress with one hand by her side, the other held in front of her as she idly rubbed her thumb and little finger together, probably a nervous tell. Ana and Jane however were anything but nervous. Both had their arms crossed and were staring at Osmond with barely concealed anger, their disgust patently obvious as I pushed on.

"Those two conversations alone are enough to have you tried for conspiracy to murder. That's without our ability to connect you to the kidnapping of Adoria Moreno"

"Kidnapping across a state line makes it a Federal case" It was Anastasia breaking in. "Normally I'd be arresting you for that, but murder trumps kidnapping" I glanced up to see her shrug before continuing. "I don't really care, I'm happy to see California send you to death row rather than have you rotting in a Federal penitentiary" Marsh frowned.

"You have no proof of the kidnapping claim beyond some wild claims from a witness of questionable validity" Sharon smiled gently, almost condescendingly, as she spoke quietly.

"Mr Marsh, given how many times you've sat across a table from me you should know me better than that by now. We've had a court order to crack open the financial records of former-Detective Osmond here and those of his wife, plus we executed a search warrant on their house yesterday. Members of Major Crimes, Force Investigation and SIS, with the full cooperation and assistance of the Bureau have spent the night ripping his house and financial history apart" She tilted her head to one side to regard Osmond. "The same with Mister Osmond's computer search history, both at home and here at work. You won't believe all the things we found" She shuffled another file to the top of the small pile in front of her and opened it, sliding a printout across the table with several lines highlighted.

"Detective Osmond accessed LAPD records on one Carmen Ortiz four times in the two weeks leading up to her disappearance. That was the name that Adoria Moreno had been settled in LA with by the Witness Protection program" She nodded her head once. "I grant you this might sound circumstantial, however a check of the systems at the Justice Department revealed that her details were accessed three days before the first time Mister Osmond looked her details up" She sat back. "The person who accessed that information was a Justice Department data entry person named Joan Hammond" Out came another photo, a DMV image this time of a heavy set woman which Sharon laid out on the table, aligned precisely next to the printout. "Hammond is her married name, her mother's surname was Richards after she remarried; her mother's surname from her first marriage was Kennedy" Sharon nodded. "Yes detective, Joan Hammond is Sergeant Kennedy's younger sister, or did you already know that?"

Marsh had sat there quietly, but at Sharon's question he turned.

"Don't answer that" Turning back to us he scowled at Sharon. "If circumstantial evidence is all you have you have nothing and this interview is over" I was about to say something when I was interrupted from behind me.

"Mister Marsh" It was Natalie. "Imagine how your personal reputation and the reputation of the Police Union's going to suffer when the media zeroes in on the fact that the union's own lawyers are trying to protect cop killers" Marsh peered up at her and frowned.

"That's for the jury to decide, not the media" I kept my face impassive as I turned to look at her, we'd not discussed this but I wasn't going to not back her play; Natalie's voice was a satisfied, confident purr.

"Oh Mister Marsh really, when has that EVER stopped the media hmm?" She cocked her head at him, smiling gently. "If I were you I'd be getting a good PR agency soon, you'll find you'll definitely need one" Marsh looked up at her, his eyes narrowing.

"Are you threatening me?" Natalie's laugh was a surprise to him and me both before she continued.

"Threatening? Me? No, not at all, just giving you the benefit of my professional judgement, if you like I can give you the names of some of the better PR firms" She smiled. "The best ones don't come cheap, but I suppose it's the union's money isn't it?" Her smile didn't change though there was little precious humour there. "I'm sure the rank and file of the LAPD will appreciate their dues being used to protect half a dozen crooked cop killers" Marsh tried to wave her comments away.

"That's not a matter for you, or anyone else here, that's a decision made by the union" The contempt in Natalie's voice was scathing.

"Of course it is" Marsh looked across at me and sneered as he spoke.

"What the hell are these women doing here Johnson?" I sat back, trying to look unconcerned as I spoke.

"I see no issue with having them here Mister Marsh; they're all law enforcement personnel and as such have every right to be here" I smiled. "In fact, given the fact your client agreed to having them all killed I think it's only fitting that he get to see the people he agreed to have murdered"

"So you say, I've yet to see your proof" I smiled a little wider as Sharon spoke.

"We will have no difficulty whatsoever in connecting Mister Osmond to the decision to have us murdered" She sat back much as I had. "We have him agreeing on the tape to the decision to have Chief Johnson and I killed. We then have Mister Kennedy on tape meeting with a Sinaloa representative and arranging for our murders and the murder of the four people you see standing behind me. We then have the testimony of the Cartel member Mister Kennedy spoke to and the testimony of the assassins who he sent to Los Angeles to kill us" She smiled pleasantly. "Your client will pass quickly through his trial and subsequent sentencing and join the rest of his co-conspirators on death row"

Marsh sat back, a concerned expression discernible on his face, if we had the information we said we did, his client's case was hopeless and he knew it. He glanced over at Osmond who must have read the look on his lawyer's face, as he started speaking.

"It wasn't my idea, none of it was" Before Marsh could respond I jumped in.

"It was your acquiescence to Sergeant Kennedy's decision to have us killed by the Sinaloa Cartel's assassins that made you an accessory to murder" Osmond's voice rang out.

"But that wasn't my idea!" I scowled to myself, the self-serving bastard, it hadn't been his idea but he'd sure as hell agreed to it. As Marsh counselled him to be silent Sharon took up the probing.

"However it was all of your agreement to do so that saw assassins dispatched to kill us all Mister Osmond, who gave you the right to decide that I should die, shot while I lay sleeping in my bed?" I stepped in to back her up.

"I have never crossed paths with you Mister Osmond; you don't know me at all, given all that do you normally decide to have total strangers killed?" I shook my head as I continued. "I've given most of my life to the defence of the people of the United States, either in the CIA or in the police forces of Washington, Atlanta and here, none of that warrants my execution by the assassins you agreed to"

"Allegedly agreed to" It was Marsh, drawing a scowl and a sharp retort from me.

"Oh don't waste my time, you watched the same tape as the rest of us, he agreed to have us killed" Marsh opened his mouth to say something but was beaten to it by a surprising voice.

"I have been directly associated with law enforcement for the last six years Detective Osmond" It was Maura, her voice quiet but clear. "First as the Boston Police Department's resident Medical Examiner then the same role here in Los Angeles, I have worked with hundreds of detectives, helping them close cases and bring some peace to the families of the dead. It is what I do and I ask you Detective Osmond, what did I do to you that you wished me killed?" Marsh shook his head and held his hand out to Osmond in a 'say nothing' gesture as Natalie spoke up.

"I've worked for the LAPD and the Seattle Police Department before that, almost four years in law enforcement, trying to make the public understand all the good we do, the crimes solved and the payment that we've paid for those successes in dead and maimed officers, why did I deserve to die for that?" Osmond looked down; refusing to look at any of us even as Ana spoke up, the contempt in her voice was acid.

"Six years with the Bureau, working with the Seattle and Los Angeles Police for the last four of them, a military cop before that in Iraq and Afghanistan, putting my life on the line over and over again to do what's right, to bring justice to the victims so why don't you explain to me why you wanted me dead?" Osmond's head, if anything hung lower as Jane hammered him again, her voice clipped and angry.

"All my working life I've wanted to be a cop, a homicide cop, a detective like you, or what you were supposed to have been. I worked my way up, pounding a beat for years before making the step up to Vice, then Homicide. I'm a detective just like you, or what you once were. I've read your file Osmond, we're not that different, or at least you wouldn't think so, up until you went bad. What the hell gives you the right to decide if I live or die?" Marsh slapped his meaty palm down on the table, the noise loud in the room.

"Enough, stop badgering my client" I shook my head then spoke.

"Mister Marsh, all of us will take the stand and tell the judge, the jury and the world what we've just said, combine that with the evidence and testimony we already have and your client's guilt is incontrovertible. Your client will go to jail for the rest of his life, he will die in jail, one way or the other" Sharon leaned forward and spoke, her voice quiet and soothing.

"Mister Osmond will go to jail, however he has a chance to do the right thing, here and now" Marsh peered at her from under beetled brow then spoke.

"What exactly's on the table, what kinda deal are you offering" I noticed Osmond's head come up and his eyes meet mine across the table as I shrugged and glanced across at Sharon who leaned back, her face and voice serene.

"Oh we're not offering a deal Mister Marsh; we are offering Mr Osmond a chance to clear his conscience, to come clean on this whole sordid mess, so that he can face his destiny and God knowing he has done the right thing. The right thing by his victims, people like Adoria Moreno here" She tapped the photo still lying there on the table. "The right thing so that he can stand before God and answer for his crimes, seeking forgiveness" Marsh quite obviously didn't believe what he was hearing, something that carried over into his voice, full of incredulity.

"No deal?" Sharon shook her head once, her voice like judgment day.

"No deal" Osmond just stared at Sharon while Marsh looked like we'd just slapped him across the face before he finally spoke, offended.

"Why should we even consider helping you?" I leaned forward, as serious as I could be.

"Mister Marsh, even if we wanted to do a deal, the DA's office will take one look at the evidence we have and immediately call for the death penalty. When the judge see's our video evidence of your client here conspiring to have multiple police officers killed, they won't hesitate to direct the jury to find them guilty of a capital crime" Ana took up the thread.

"The Federal Government will be an interested observer at the trial, and I can guarantee that they will petition the judge for a capital finding" Ana shrugged. "They take people who jeopardise the integrity of the WitSec program seriously, given it's a major part of the government's ability to get criminals to turn state's evidence, so they'll be pushing for the maximum possible penalty for all offenders as a warning"

"And when the media gets the full story…" It was Natalie. "The public will end up calling for the same thing" Maura nodded and chipped in as well.

"When I provide the details of what was done to Miss Ortiz, in painfully extensive forensic detail, I doubt the jury, the judge or the wider public will be unmoved" I shrugged.

"As you can see, there's not much we can do, your client was the one who made his choices, now those choices have brought us here. Given he made the decisions that led him here, I think it's only fit and proper that he have the chance to make the right decision now" I turned my head to stare at Osmond. "To make his peace with God and try and atone for his crimes in this life, as he will surely be paying for them in the next" I spoke slowly to make sure I wasn't misunderstood. "Eternal damnation awaits unrepentant sinners, isn't that right Mister Osmond. Confession and repentance is the way to the Lord's forgiveness, least that's what the Church taught me back when I was a child" I shrugged. "You can lie to everyone here, you can lie to yourself maybe, but when you're called to answer for your life and crimes, you won't be able to stand there and lie before God" I let the quiet drag out then finished up. "Confession starts here Mister Osmond, you can start making amends now to try and offset what you've done, to start balancing the ledger when you face God, or you can go to hell"

"Stop pressuring my client Johnson" I turned to Marsh and shrugged.

"I'm just telling him what he knows to be true, damnation awaits unrepentant sinners, confession and penance is the start of the path to forgiveness, isn't that right Mister Osmond?" Jane's voice came from behind me, quiet and reflective.

"If we may confess our sins, steadfast He is and righteous, that He may forgive us the sins, and may cleanse us from every unrighteousness" I remembered the words from John 1.9 from long Sunday mornings in church growing up and followed up Jane's words with the next verse.

"If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us" It was quiet in the room as Osmond looked at me for a moment, taking in my words, then looking around the room at the other women, finding six sets of eyes staring at him, unwavering in their regard, perhaps seeing into his soul, if he still possessed one surely it was tainted now. Finally he looked down and spoke softly, soft enough that I could barely hear his words.

"Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you" Anastasia's voice came from behind me, clear and quiet as I recognised the words from my old Russian language teacher Dmitri's Russian Orthodox prayer for those who had transgressed against him.

"O Angel of Christ, holy guardian and protector of my soul and body, pray that You forgive those who treat me unjustly and speak out against me, and that You bless them and guide them according to Your will, to Your praise and glory. Amen" Osmond looked up at her, something like hope in his eyes as he spoke softly.

"Amen" He paused for a moment then continued as his voice grew stronger; he nodded at Ana then looked at me. "Okay, what do you wanna know?"

"Everything Mr Osmond, everything" He shrugged then looked at Marsh, they exchanged a conversation without words before Marsh leaned back and looked at us.

"I want it on the record that my client is cooperating with your investigation, I'll be petitioning the court to take that into account" I nodded once as Sharon spoke.

"So noted" She turned her cool gaze to Osmond. "Tell us how you got involved in Kennedy and Powell's schemes?" He took a deep breath then let it out slowly, silent for a moment, perhaps he was praying for absolution. After about ten seconds he looked up as I held myself still, waiting.

"Okay, where do you want to start?"


	87. Chapter 87

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**87 Downtime**

Maura's viewpoint

I am in awe of the extraordinarily good fortune that has led me to love and to be loved by Jane Rizzoli.

Being Jane's lover has redefined my life in so many ways; the ardour, the protectiveness, the desire, the chemistry between us, manifesting itself in every way, large and small, from the long looks, the teasing and the constant touching, to the achingly beautiful comfort of her embrace and the joy and abandon of our lovemaking.

Jane approaches making love like everything else in her life, with a determination to succeed, to be the best, to deliver her best, time after time. Once we were able to overcome her initial reservations, Jane has proven to be an amazing lover, she would willingly forego her own satisfaction to make sure that I was satiated, the fierce determination to avenge the victims and protect the weak she shows the outside world is matched by her desire to be everything I could ever need, to ensure my safety, my comfort, my happiness and my pleasure.

Truly her desire to protect me, to stand between the harms of the world and I is one of the first reasons I fell in love with her. She wished to draw me into the wider world, out of the isolation I had cloaked myself in to safeguard my heart, but stood guard over me to ensure that I got to experience life's pleasure without the pain. A quixotic quest to be sure, but one that endeared her ever more to me as time went on.

Jane is the one who turns a mask to the world; they only see the independent woman, the relentless detective and the fierce protector of the helpless, what they don't see is the toll that maintaining that façade takes on her. Underneath is a vulnerable woman who feels, who grieves for the innocent, mourns the victims, suffers the pain of defeats silently and is always on her guard, knowing better than most that the world indeed is populated by monsters. Not the ancient monsters of legend but the modern ones in human form. The rapists, the arsonists, the serial killers, the paedophiles, the cannibals, the torturers, the poisoners and the truly, murderously deranged. Jane has faced them all, defeated them all, but each victory steals a little of her in the process.

Those nights Jane comes to me, broken and hurting, the bad nights, I sooth her pain as best I can, holding her to me gently as she cries, other times by responding to her burning desire with an equal force, we bind ourselves together at a primal level, reaffirming our bond, our love, in a tangible, physical manner. Sometimes however I feel the need to wrest the mask from Jane, to force her to discard the persona she shows the world and instead be innocent and soft and mine, to spare her from the world's cares and worries. Tonight was just such a night.

The past few weeks had been hard, hard on all of us, particularly hard on Jane, her driving desire to protect me against all threats strained to the limit by the ordeal we had all been through. Talking to Natalie about it she informed me that Anastasia was also wound tight, unwilling to let go of the guardian aspect she had assumed, unable to relax into the aspect of the lover that Natalie so desperately needed.

Natalie had her own answer; tonight she was going to lock the doors, turn off the phones, drag Anastasia into bed and spend the next 24 hours reminding Anastasia of who she was, who they were as a couple and how good they were together. As Natalie put it, '_I may not be able to fuck her to death, but I'm going to try. By the time we're finished, she'll be too tired to worry about anything except when I'm going to let her escape_'. I smiled at the thought, not quite sure if I should be worried for Anastasia or jealous of her, before turning my attention back to Jane.

She was due home soon, it was Friday night and she had stayed a little late for a drink or two at O'Malley's with the team as they saluted the passing of another week and another case. While I had been invited I had politely declined, but insisted she should attend, if only for a little while, buying me time to prepare for tonight. It was now almost seven thirty and I expected her home soon, she'd texted me a little while ago to let me know she was on her way.

I had spent some time preparing for our sessions, having chosen my outfit with some care. Prior to the first time we had done this I had researched the 'lifestyle' as it was sometimes described by its devotees and practitioners and had shopped personally, visiting some of Boston and New York's finest specialty stores for the correct apparel and accessories. It had not been cheap however the effect on Jane the first time I had surprised her had been such that she had been too stunned to resist.

Once she realised what I was doing and why, she was already accepting of my game, she had acquiesced and we had explored aspects of our individual personas that we both barely knew existed. Afterwards Jane had shyly admitted that being placed in that position had been a cathartic experience, allowing her to free her mind from her cares and luxuriate in the knowledge that her well-being was in my capable, caring hands.

I checked myself in the mirror once again, assuring myself that I was appropriately dressed to adopt tonight's guise. The corset and thong, the knee-high boots with their five inch spiked heels, the opera length gloves, all in glossy, polished black leather, my hair piled high and held by black ribbons, my makeup dark and dramatic, I knew the look I sought and here tonight I had achieved it. Jane would see it and know instantly what it signified.

I turned as I heard the garage door open and the sound of a car engine, signifying her arrival. I smiled to myself, tonight would be what Jane needed, what we both needed, plus it would be fun, to take control and use it to a most necessary and satisfying end. I strolled into the hall and awaited Jane's presence, hearing the garage door close. Seconds later the door opened and Jane walked in.

"Hi Maura, sorry it took so…long…" He voice trailed off as she took me in, I saw her swallow involuntarily, giving me an illicit thrill to realise that even after more than a year together I can still have such an effect on her. I dropped my voice's register, letting a little of my desire creep in.

"Jane, my dear darling Jane, no doubt you have already determined what is going to happen tonight" She nodded slowly as I smiled, before commencing tonight's scene "Then by all means let us get to it. Strip Jane, right now" Jane quickly divested herself of her clothes, her eyes dark and needy; she'd confessed that when I dress like this, behave so completely differently from normal, she had a visceral reaction, feeling something primal deep in her core. I planned on using that tonight.

"Excellent Jane, now into the shower in the guest bedroom, scrub yourself clean, I want no trace of the outside world on you" I folded my arms as she stood there looking at me. "Well?"

With a quick nod she turned and headed off towards the guest bedroom, from whence the sound of showering soon followed. In the meantime I picked up her clothes, emptied the pockets and discarded the clothes into the various dirty clothes bins, locking her badge and weapon in their safe before retrieving the leather collar from the table and running it between my fingers. Such a simple item, crafted from the very finest soft leathers available, it was not meant to physically restrain the wearer, rather it symbolised a mental restraint, a change in outlook and attitude, replaced by an alternative one Jane was in sore need of. While Jane was in the shower, I brought out the light snacks I had prepared for tonight, while I had eaten I doubted Jane had, she would be hungry, sooner or later.

Jane emerged, nude, her skin still pink from the towelling, stopping as she saw me standing in the door, waiting for her. I sauntered down the hall, stopping close to Jane, not missing the flash of tongue as she moistened her lips, I had the power to drive her to distraction and quite frankly I revelled in it, that Jane could be reduced to her base carnal impulses at the sight of me. Still, despite the evidence I needed to be sure.

"Jane, you are aware of what will happen tonight, are you not?" She nodded; her voice low with lust and want and emotion, she needed this, perhaps she had been unaware of it but she needed this; more, we needed this.

"Yes" At her simple, honest truth I smiled.

"Are you comfortable with taking part tonight? Are you comfortable with this?" She looked at me, our eyes level in my heels, before nodding slowly. On impulse I leaned forward, kissing her gently, feeling her automatically respond before I pulled away, catching a hint of a smile on her lips, she knew her hold over me. "Ah Jane, you are a temptation" She smiled gently again before I reached up and slowly fixed the collar around her neck, fastening it while ensuring it wasn't too tight.

I then fixed the lead to the collar's ring, before turning and leading her into the lounge. The rules of our game had been laid down the first time we had played, the second time had needed no reiteration and I doubted they would tonight.

Basically Jane could only say 'yes', 'no', 'please' and 'thank you' and must append Mistress to the statements. She otherwise could only speak in response to a direct question. At first Jane had hesitated in using the term Mistress, her natural rebelliousness making it hard to accept until I had explained that it was a trigger phrase, it helped her mind accept the temporary change in our relationship that using it signified, at least for the period while we played this game. Once she understood the usage she was less troubled about the terminology and its implications, instead settling into the role.

I led Jane towards the sofa and coffee table, which was decorated with plates of finger food, small morsels perfect for feeding to Jane throughout the evening. Seating myself on the sofa, I gently tugged the lead, indicating I wished her to sit by my feet, smiling as she settled on a soft cushion placed there expressly for that purpose.

"My darling Jane, thank you for agreeing to tonight, I hope you enjoy tonight as much as I plan too" Jane looked at me, the humour visible in her eyes.

"Thank you Mistress" I smiled gently, reaching out to stroke my fingers against her cheek, seeing her lean slightly into them.

"You truly are beautiful Jane, sometimes I wonder how I was the one to capture your heart, how I got so lucky" I could see her almost protest, before remembering the rules and stilling as I raised an eyebrow at her. She was silent for a while, obviously thinking over her options before settling on a safe response.

"Thank you Mistress" I smiled again, seeing her bare before me, no garments to hide the marvelously-sculpted wonder that was her body. She had always been quite spectacular; her muscle development had teased me on oh so many nights after our yoga or gym sessions, restless nights where I had fantasised about kissing my way across her abdominals, drawing my tongue across that gym-honed body, the thoughts driving me to a satisfactory, if solitary climax. The reality once we became lovers had been even better than I could have ever dreamed; a description that applied to everything about our relationship.

Now however, the results of her regular intensive sparring and training sessions with Anastasia were quite frankly stunning, she was lean and taut, all coiled muscle and leashed strength, powerful and dangerous but now quiescent, her strength tamed by a small piece of leather and her love for me. I slowly, deliberately ran my eyes over her, seeing a slight blush colour Jane's cheeks at my open appraisal, making me inwardly smile.

"Your body has always been wonderful Jane, now however; it is a work of art. It holds the power to take my breath away" She looked down and nodded.

"Thank you Mistress" I smiled and leaned across, picking up some light finger food and sampling it, a fish cake, tart but matched with a sweet chilli sauce it was delicious. Picking up another and delicately dipping it in the sauce I fed it to Jane, she took it neatly, taking the treat into her mouth and chewing for a moment before swallowing. "Thank you Mistress"

"Are you hungry Jane?"

"Yes Mistress" Over the next twenty minutes I fed Jane a collection of small treats, all the while telling her how beautiful she was, how much I adored her, how wonderful she was, all the things she would normally never sit still to hear. It was why I loved these nights, as infrequent as they are.

Not only does it allow Jane the relief of lifting the burdens of having to be in charge, to have to make decisions, to be dominant and in control, as her job demands, allowing her to relax and have those burdens taken from her, if just for a night, I also have the opportunity to tell Jane exactly how special she is to me, as a person, as a lover, as my soul-mate.

Normally Jane would deflect, change the subject, do anything to turn away the attention; her own modesty would preclude her agreeing with how wonderful I truly believe she is. On these nights though, I get to tell her exactly how I feel about her, she has to sit there and hear the unvarnished truth, that she is someone infinitely precious and worthy of my total and utter devotion.

I particularly enjoy these rare moments because I get to concentrate on Jane and by the rules Jane cannot avoid my truths. Over the next hour we sat and watched television as I continued to feed Jane her meal, we had recorded one of our favourite shows but our attention was elsewhere, our minds lost in other things.

I took the opportunity to brush Jane's hair, a simple, intimate service, one that no one bar her mother had ever undertaken; it is something both simple and very special, just between the two of us. By the time I had finished Jane's head was resting against my knee, almost inaudible sighs of pleasure rewarding my work and make me smile.

The night also provided a chance to tease Jane a little, pushing her boundaries a trifle further forward. One evening when Natalie and I were exchanging stories about our lovers over a few too many drinks she had frankly explained that we had occasionally featured in their teasing, they wove fantasies around us, around Alex and Olivia, Sharon and Brenda, Mikki and Andrea, nothing more than erotic teasing as they lay in each others arms, designed to draw a reaction.

Upon my push to learn more, Natalie had quietly explained a few, mostly about our mutual friends, out of courtesy she had left out any involving Jane and I but based on the ones she had related I could imagine the ones involving us were equally arousing.

Natalie chained to a frame, being totally ravished by Olivia while Anastasia and Alexandra sat fully clothed, watching, drinking wine and providing 'suggestions' to Olivia on what she could do to her victim next for their entertainment; seducing Brenda and Sharon and competing to see who could drive their victim to orgasm first; Natalie watching Mikki and Anastasia passionately making love as Andrea orally serviced her, quite obviously they both possessed active and quite erotic imaginations, although Natalie had laughed and stated it was all Anastasia's kinky influence. Ever since then I had enjoyed crafting similar fantasies, idle daydreams that accompanied thoughts of our friends; they were gorgeous and desirable and arousing and so the occasional erotic fantasy was totally understandable. I had taken to relating some of them to Jane from time to time, her visibly-embarrassed responses belied by the physical reactions her body gave, signposts to her arousal.

"I wonder Jane, who would I like to see you seduced by more, Natalie or Alexandra" I didn't miss the widening of her eyes, followed by the slight swallow as she realised where we were going. Oh yes, Jane may occasionally protest but she loves our harmless little fantasies. "Both of them would look so good draped across a bed, worshiping that wonderful body of yours. Do you have a preference my darling?" She shook her head gently, playing along as she spoke quietly.

"No Mistress" I raised one eyebrow at her response.

"Perhaps you are right my darling, in so many ways they are alike, all blonde hair, blue eyes and stunning bodies, each would make an amazing partner for you my love, such a dazzling contrast with your lean, toned body, olive skin against alabaster or tanned, blonde hair tangled with brunette, perhaps you could imagine it, feel it perhaps" I didn't miss the slow flush that was rising on Jane's torso as I continued painting a picture with my voice.

"I could imagine you sandwiched between them both, at their mercy, as they tease and touch and caress and lick and suck and fondle and fuck you" I smiled slowly at my love's increasingly obvious physical reaction to my words. "Tell me Jane, does the idea excite you, just a little?" Jane looked away for a moment, before nodding slowly. "I beg your pardon Jane, I did not hear you" Jane looked down at the floor, obviously embarrassed before I reached out and gently lifted her head, her chin in my gloved palm, making her look at me, her eyes warm pools of chocolate and desire. For a second she stared at me as I took in the all too apparent signs of lust before she spoke.

"Yes Mistress" I smiled as I released her chin, softly drawing my hand up the side of her face, gently caressing her, watching her eyes slowly close at my touch as I replied.

"Excellent; you would be superb my darling, I am sure of it. I know both Alexandra and Natalie have commented on how much they admire you, how fortunate I am to have you. They are so right of course, I am very, very fortunate indeed" I looked at her, appreciating her beauty once again. "I wonder sometimes if they are jealous, after all they have so much to be jealous of, that I have you all to myself" I was teasing her and we both knew it, none of our friends could stray any more than Jane and I could, but it was a delightfully naughty amusement to arouse Jane like this.

"Perhaps I should get them over one evening when you are like this, submissive and beautiful, I am sure both of them would take every opportunity to make the most of the situation. Ah Jane, they would cherish the chance to have you, to make love to you, to taste the forbidden fruit" I smirked slightly, noticing Jane's respiratory rate had increased in tandem with my words. "Imagine the looks on their face as they walk in unsuspecting, seeing you awaiting them on your knees, nude bar the collar, they would lick their lips and look at each other, wondering what they should do with such a prize" I saw Jane swallow convulsively at the thought, her eyes widening. "I might get you to offer them a note on a platter telling them that for the night you were their's, to do with as they wished" I smiled indulgently. "Nothing would stimulate their arousal quicker nor be more satisfying to them both" As I watched Jane's tongue flicked out to moisten her now dry lips, her eyes darkening with lust as she lost herself in my fantasy as I continued spinning my tale.

"Whatever reservations they may have had would melt away at the thought of gorging themselves on you, can you imagine their delight Jane? Their eager anticipation, their joy at having their way with you, over and over and over again, until you all collapse from complete, utter exhaustion" I didn't miss the deepening flush on Jane's torso, nor the stiffening nipples, she was well and truly aroused.

"Perhaps while you are occupied, I might enjoy some forbidden fruit of my own, after all, I would not want Anastasia and Olivia's attention to go to waste. While Natalie and Alexandra enjoy you to the fullest I could allow Anastasia and Olivia to ravish me, drag me to bed and let them subject me to their best efforts, to have them drive me to that sweet madness" I looked her over, seeing the tell-tale signs of her arousal. "Would you like that Jane?" Jane looked at me for a moment before looking away, her eyes drawn to the floor as she spoke softly.

"No Mistress" I smiled.

"Is that because you do not like the idea of sharing me Jane?" She kept her eyes downcast.

"Yes Mistress" I smiled even wider, it was just what I loved to hear.

"Perhaps you are right, after all you are a priceless treasure, why would I share you when I can have you all to myself?" Jane looked up at me and I could see the arousal, the humour and the love in her eyes, how did I get so very fortunate, to have Jane here with me, to wear her ring, to know that she was mine and I belonged to her in both heart and soul? I looked down at Jane, enjoying just having her so near. I gently leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to her forehead.

"Ah Jane, you make me complete, how did I survive without you?" I smiled, full of the love I felt for her, remembering the life I had before I met her and the life I now have. I noticed the blush creeping across Jane's cheeks again and gently teased her. "You really must learn to accept honest compliments my love" She was quiet for a moment before finally replying softly.

"Yes Mistress" I held my hands out to her.

"Please remove my gloves Jane" Carefully Jane slipped them down and off me, folding them and laying them aside on the coffee table before I told her to turn around, facing away from me.

I opened a small bottle of lavender massage oil and squirted a small amount onto my hands, before I nudged her hair out of the way over her shoulder and started massaging her neck and shoulders. As expected they were tight and tense, holding the tension she had carried for so long. For the next fifteen minutes I moved my hands over her, working out the knots and feeling her relax under my fingers. At particularly deep or hard movements I would draw either a gasp or a groan, making me smile. I was used to eliciting similar sounds from her under other circumstances, something I anticipated with pleasure. Finally, my fingers tiring, I sat back.

"Jane darling, stand please" She quickly stood and waited, but I made no move to get up, instead sitting back on the sofa. "Please, take a step back and turn around, facing me" As she did I sat there for a while, just allowing myself the pure joy of admiring her, she looked lovely and it took some effort not to lick my lips at the sight. Finally I spoke as I saw her fidgeting under my gaze.

"What are your best features Jane? What do you think are the best parts of you" Jane looked at me, the curiosity evident in her eyes as I nodded, giving her leave to speak.

"My legs, my smile and my abs" I was intrigued.

"Why those particular features as opposed to your others Jane?" She smiled for a moment before replying.

"Because they're the parts of me you say you like best" At that piece of raw honesty I could not help but smile even as I felt a hint of tears in my eyes; the world sees Detective Jane Rizzoli, our friends see Jane the wonderful woman but only I see Jane the selfless lover, the one who can leave me undone with an honest word and a loving glance; she truly was exceptional. Standing, I made my way towards her, sauntering up to her and then circling, my fingers trailing across her skin, exploring the familiar territory of her curves and planes once more.

"Superb Jane, you are truly amazing. You are also completely correct. You have named three of the things I like best about your body. There are many others of course. Some physical, such as the fire in your eyes, your lips and the ravenous kisses they deliver, your power and strength, which holds me so gently when we sleep, so much of you is wonderful"

"Thank you Mistress" I smiled at her words and continued speaking even as I moved around her, trailing my fingertips across her warm skin.

"There's no need to thank me Jane, I am simply stating the truth" I circled Jane, coming to a stop in front of her and looked into her eyes. "That's even before the non-physical things. The love you are so generous with, your intellect, your passions; for life, for justice and for me. Sometimes I stand in awe of all that you are" She went to say something but I stilled her with a finger to her lips.

"Ah ah Jane, no denials, you are exceptional and I am blessed to have you" She chewed her lip for a moment and then looked down, saying nothing. I walked around her, taking her in again, before I stepped up behind her, sliding my hands under her arms, bringing my hands up to slide over her breasts as I moulded my body to hers. I heard a slight groan escape Jane's lips as my hands cupped her breasts, making me smile and lean in to whisper in her ear.

"Amazing Jane, you are amazing" I slowly rolled her hardening nipples between my thumb and fingers, eliciting a gasp, then a low moan as I squeezed them gently while I laid soft kisses to her shoulder and neck, feeling her relax into my touch as I smelled the lavender of my massage oil on her skin, mingling with her own, a scent I will forever associate with Jane. I have no idea how long we stood there, feeling her under my lips and hands, cradling her against me as I caressed her with fingers and tongue, just enjoying the pleasure of her body against mine as I drew her arousal higher. Finally though I stepped back, reluctantly letting her go, I'd raised her to this state, it was up to me to finish that which I had started.

"Please turn Jane" She did so, her eyes on me, dark and intense, my poor darling was very turned on. I smiled. "I believe it's time for bed my love" Her quick and eager smile was reward enough. I drew her by the lead to the bedroom, having her stand at the foot of the bed.

"Sit on the bed Jane, in the middle, kneeling facing the bed head with your thighs spread wide" As she did so I dimmed the lights before unzipping my boots and stepping out of them. Walking round the bed I moved onto the mattress, kneeling behind Jane then snuggling closer, until I was pressed up against her again, my thighs up against the outside of hers, her back against my corset as I moved her hair over her right shoulder, allowing me free access to her neck and left shoulder.

"Jane, you have given me such joy, I could never have contemplated the like before I met you, thank you" Jane leaned back into me, allowing me further access and her body to fall gently back against mine.

"Maura, you give me…ah!" The gasp came as I pinched her nipple gently between my fingers.

"It's Mistress dear, remember that, I don't want to have to punish you" She nodded.

"Yes Mistress" I leaned in and chuckled softly into her ear.

"I don't want to punish you Jane, I want to reward you, for being wonderful, for being perfect, for being you" I smiled, before I let my head drop, allowing my lips to fall onto her neck, teasing and tasting her. I heard a low moan drawn from deep within her, Jane's head falling back against my shoulder as I palmed both breasts, feeling the hard pebbles of her nipples against my palms, before letting my fingers seek them out, gently teasing and twisting and tormenting them once more. I could feel her vibrate under me; taunt with need and desire as I continued laying kisses across her neck and shoulder, toying with her right breast while I let my left hand slowly drift across her torso, ever lower. Low moans and signs filled the room as I caressed her, my hand dipping lower, feeling her curls under my fingertips as I reached ever further down, seeking her clit.

The first touch of my fingers drew a gasp, loud in its intensity as Jane's body rose on her knees, her hips rising to meet my fingers; she needed my touch, craved the release, desperately seeking out that sweet touch of ecstasy as I moved my lips to her pulse point, feeling her life under my lips, worshiping the reality of her, kissing and tonguing it over and over as my hand moved down and under her.

I could feel her moisture coating my fingers, evidence of her almost painful arousal as, with effort, I resisted the desire to coat my fingers in that moisture and bring them to my lips. This wasn't about me, this was all for Jane.

"My darling, you are so wet, so responsive, so wonderful" As I spoke I slid my fingers across her nub, drawing a shudder through her as she tried to speak.

"Thank…you…mis…mist…mistress, ah god yessss" Jane's body trembled under my touch, the wave rising within her. I gently ran my fingers back and forward across her clitoris, over and back, again and again, dragging increasingly desperate gasps and moans from her, feeling the rapid approach of Jane's climax, the poor darling had been teased and tormented for so long she was in quite the state; her release would not be long denied.

I continued tweaking her nipple with my right hand as I slid the index finger of my left inside Jane's wet heat, curling towards the area that would push her over the edge, my thumb flicking across her nub, tricky but something I have had long practice at performing as she began shaking under me, her voice rising to crescendo as her body bucked into my hand and she shuddered against me.

"Oh fuck Maura, please, please, yes, oh GOD MAURA! **YES!**"

As her climax hit I switched from kissing her shoulder to biting down, the urge to mark her, to make her mine a primal thing I could not resist, the sudden shock of the pain adding to the impact of Jane's climax. Her body arced against me, her head thrown back, muscles taunt and straining as she hung there for moments, before slumping back against me, spent.

"Fuck, oh god, Jesus Maura, oh my god" Her body continued to spasm against me, the shakes and shudders gradually getting weaker as I held her, seeing the hint of tears appear in her tightly closed eyes, escaping under her lashes as I whispered into her ear.

"Let go Jane, let it all go, I have you darling, let go my love and just feel it" I could feel shudders of another kind as she let herself go, giving in to her long-suppressed emotions, relaxing and allowing me to support her, gently holding her to me as I leaned back, pulling her back onto me.

Jane was whispering, over and over, 'thank you, thank you' though truly she need not thank me, her happiness is all the reward I could ever seek. I felt the muscles in my thighs twinge, reminding me I needed to get back into yoga again, something I had neglected in recent times given the press of more important matters.

Jane turned her head to me, her eyes still closed as she sought me out blindly like a newborn as I trailed kisses across her jaw and mouth, before kissing the tears trailing down her cheeks. I don't know how long I held her, feeling her sagging against me as profound exhaustion overtook her, surrendering to the blissful sleep she so dearly deserved.

The last thing she managed to articulate before she finally succumbed was a murmured 'love you', bringing a happily satisfied smile to my face. Moving carefully, I rolled Jane onto the bed and brought a pillow across for her head, before standing and doffing the corset and the quite sodden panties I still wore.

Throughout Jane lay bonelessly, soundly sleeping free from care, perhaps for the first time in days as I contemplated her there, relaxed and deep in the vast bottomless sleep of the utterly exhausted.

Removing the ribbons tying up my hair, I turned out the lights throughout the house, allowing Jo and Bass back inside before moving quietly back to the bedroom and sliding onto the bed again, snuggling up against her as I had done before, but this time seeking her warmth and reassuring presence, the knowledge that she was here, her love wrapping around me like a comforting blanket. Spooning up against her I slid one leg over her long slender ones as I curled my arm around her, pulling me even closer, tighter to me, resting my head on the pillow, my cheek against her shoulder, hearing the muted drumbeat of her heart under my ear, the rhythmic sound lulling me to sleep.

The last thought I had before I drifted off to sleep was a small prayer to whatever fates had brought us together, giving us both such happiness after a life of loneliness. Feeling her warmth against me, the soft susurration of her breathing, I couldn't help a small smile as I gave thanks for the joy I felt.

'_Thank you_'


	88. Chapter 88

Hi everyone.

I'm sure you're wondering where the hell I've been and why I haven't been posting. It's a long story but I can summarise it down to this.

Earlier this year I was hit with a succession of personal and professional set-backs which hit me pretty hard. One effect of all this was that my self-confidence and sense of self-worth took some pretty serious hits.

As anyone who writes knows all too well, you have to have some sense of self-belief to write, plus the self-confidence to put your work out in the public eye; I lost both for the longest time. Where I could previously sit down and write a couple of thousand words at a stint easily, I was struggling to get the motivation to write and when I did it was an effort to string together two dozen words, all of which further undermined my confidence. A vicious circle really.

Lately I received some really bad news about another friend, who, as part of that discussion gave me the following advice: "_You don't know how much time you've got, I sure as hell didn't, so I might as well make the most of it_"

To that end I am forcing myself to get back into publishing. My output may be slower than I like, but I hope that getting back into publishing I will rediscover that spark to allow me to get back into writing at the pace I once was able to.

For everyone who reads this, please accept my deepest apologies for the unforgivable delay in finishing this and my other stories, and your indulgence as I try and get things back on track.

Mike

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**88 ****Fantasy versus Reality**

Alex's viewpoint

Most of the people who don't really know me have this strange idea of who I am. Alex Cabot, child of wealth and privilege, ridiculously wealthy thanks to my family's forebears, attractive, well stunning really, according to the many men and women who've tried to seduce me, clothes horse according to many often jealous women, frigid bitch extraordinaire according to most of the New York legal fraternity, well those who defend criminal swine for a living at any rate.

While there's an essence of truth to all of those statements, the real me is nothing like that composite, distorted picture.

Tonight is a good case in point; it's a late Saturday afternoon, most people who presume to think they know me would probably guess that I'm either preparing to rub shoulders with the one-percenters at a high society cocktail party, attending the opening night of a gallery exhibition or fashion show or perhaps shopping at some ridiculously upmarket haute couture boutique. In fact I'm ensconced on my lounge in our apartment in comfy leggings, thick knit socks and a ratty Harvard tee that's seen much better days, my hair in a messy, twisted bun to keep it out of the way while I work through the pile of files I've brought home to work on. Cases, appeals, motions, requests for arbitration, warrant requests, there's a seemingly never-ending pile of work that awaits my attention and my time.

I might have a reputation as one of New York's best prosecutors, but that's built on the fact that I do my homework, long hours of extra work to make sure that I'm not just on top of my briefs but that I'm intimately familiar with every aspect of a case. A few times early in my career I got blindsided because I hadn't done my research, I don't know which hurt more, the dismissive look on the judge's face, the scorn on the faces of the cops who'd worked hard to get a conviction, the devestated victim's who had been counting on me to bring their assailants to justice or the smug grins of the criminals and their lawyers. That's why I also have a reputation as a ball-breaker with every team I've ever worked with, I don't ever want to be in a position like that again, when I take a case to court I want, no need, a conviction.

So now I'm curled up with a small pile of cases, probably four or five hours' worth of hard legal grind sitting on the coffee table next to the couch I'm snuggled into. I had a big mug of hot chocolate sitting next to the files; I try and give the coffee a rest on the weekend when I can, it's work fuel at the office but I try and taper off a bit on the weekends, especially since Maura spent some time on her first visit up here being discretely appalled when she realised how much I was drinking, then followed up with a very polite but **very** serious lecture about the downsides of caffeine addition.

Thus it was hot chocolate as I'd worked my way through several hours of work this Saturday afternoon with several more in front of me. I'd once idly calculated that if you divided my salary by the hours worked, my hourly rate was actually less than the junior lawyers we employed, plus they had the benefit of arriving at 9, leaving at 5 and not having to worry about work out of hours. Still, I couldn't complain, it was my choice after all and anyway if you divided Liv's salary by the hours she worked, she was working for a lot less than I was, with the added risks that her job entailed. If there was an unsolved crime there it was how little she got paid for all that she's done for New York, all the pain and suffering, the crushing work-load and the toll that her job takes on her health and her soul though she usually dismisses it as all part of her job; that dismissal angers me at times, it's not something to be idly swept away, we argue about it sometimes.

That brought me to another occasional sore point between us, money. I know that the financial discrepancy between us bothers her, that she can't bring all that much to the table financially, even though Olivia insists on paying a third of the mortgage on this place. She wanted to pay half but I eventually convinced her that pauperising herself to pay a half share of the mortgage was silly, so she pays a third of the mortgage and half the utilities, something that I appreciate her for, even though it's unnecessary. I could pay everything and hardly notice but she was adamant that she wasn't going to be, in her words, a 'gold-digging free-loader', the thought had made me smile while the vehemency of her words had made me love her just a little more. It's not often you come across someone for whom the Cabot wealth is a turn-off, most see the chance for a life of ease, whereas Liv sees something else that makes her doubt her worth to me, silly girl. Her love is worth more to me than all the endowments and bank accounts in the world.

Sure I have money, my family is very rich and one day I'll inherit most of it but it's not that important to me. Once I have enough to be comfortable, I don't feel the need to be ostentatious about it. I have a nice apartment here with a great view but it's a really good investment, one day I'll sell it for a lot more than I paid for it; I don't need a flashy car, the Audi I have is six years old and it really only gets used for the occaisional runs up Long Island to the family house in the Hamptons. Besides, these days I get to ride in Liv's vintage Mustang as often as not, which is just fine by me, a sleek, powerful car driven by a sleek, powerful woman, what's not to like?

Plenty of gay girls and more than a few straight woman have commented to me on how gorgeous Liv is, not in a catty way, just admiring all that strength and power and confidence wrapped up in a beautiful shell; many of them also tell me how lucky I am to have someone so attentive, so caring and thoughtful, something I'm happy to agree with. I've never had a lover like Liv, she tells me I bring out something inside her, something protective and loving and caring, all of which make me feel very, very cherished.

Mind you, I'm the same, I've not been the best of girlfriends to my previous lovers, too wrapped up in my studies and then my career to devote the time I should have to them. My work and the cases came first, something that was too much for several of them, two left back before I made it to SVU because they felt I was too wrapped up in my caseload to devote the time to them they thought they deserved, something that in retrospect was all too true. For many others who came later they suffered from not being Olivia Benson, back in the days when I thought she was straight... I sighed; so much time wasted, if only I'd known. Ah well, water under the bridge and all that I suppose.

I had several short-term relationships when I was in witness protection, women attracted to 'Emily' in Nebraska or 'Tanya' in Wisconsin or 'Karen' in Illinois, but they were always going to be nothing more than emotional lay-overs, I couldn't give them what they wanted, partly because I'd never know when I'd be packed up and moved somewhere else with no notice, but mostly because my heart belonged to a beautiful detective I'd been forced to leave behind in New York, even if I'd never told her so.

Now we're together I get to take care of her too, she really is my world, my haven from work and stress and all the pressures that our jobs bring with them. I do my best to be there for her, the same as she is for me, lying in her arms makes everything better, to know I have someone who loves me for me is something I'll never ever take for granted. Liv tells me the same, that having a place to come home to and a lover's arms to snuggle into makes her life bearable, that in amongst all the darkness that her job entails there's someone there for her who understands, who realises the dark side of our jobs and still loves her, is what keeps her going on bad days.

Talking to Maura and Nat they tell me the same thing, that while they're not blind to the risks of loving a cop, they couldn't contemplate life without Jane and Ana, that the love they receive is worth any risk and the chance to show their lovers that there is a life beyond the darkness and danger of a cop's life is an honour and a duty they bear happily, anything to ease Ana and Jane's burdens. That's something I understand completely cause I feel exactly the same way; Liv's health and happiness is the most important thing in my life.

Besides, it's not like it's some great trial to love them, Jane and Ana and Olivia are all cut from the same gorgeous cloth, they're caring and loving and protective and generous in ways that we could never have imagined before we got together. Liv is everything I've ever wanted and from what Nat and Maura tell me, Jane and Ana are just like Liv, we're all so blessed to have them, each of them is something very, very special. The fact that our lovers are so beautiful, each in their very different ways, is just the icing on the cake.

I know each couple looks good together, same as we do; Liv's strength and power and beauty would make anyone happy to be on her arm, but to have her love, to know that she has eyes for no one but me, that's something very, very special. She tells me that she's the one proud to be on my arm, the one who can't believe someone as beautiful as me is with her, I think exactly the same of her, something I make certain to prove to her everyday.

I know lots of people think I'm attractive, something I'm quietly vain about. I like to be watched, to be admired and desired, thanks to good genes and a regular schedule of running and exercise I work hard to stay slim and fit, plus I don't mind spending money on good hair stylists and beauticians, I see it as money invested for the future. I do stand out in a crowd, which can be a good or a bad thing, a lot of women get catty and jealous about it which is the reason I don't have all that many close friends, Casey and Serena and a couple of other lawyers I've worked with over the years, the guys in SVU, a few others but not a vast number of them, plus Liv of course.

Now though, I have Nat and Maura, with them I'm one of the girls, part of the sisterhood, something that I love. As Nat put it one day, 'sisters from different misters'; we were not related by blood but by choice, they were as close as anyone I'd ever had and I counted myself very, very fortunate to have them in my life, plus Jane and Ana were a huge part of my life as well, they were like having a set of loving and protective brothers, albeit wrapped in gorgeous packages.

When we're all out together, like we were at the Mayor's Ball, I feel a part of the group in a way I haven't really ever felt, surrounded by the people I cared for the most, accepted and cherished and loved, something that hadn't been a big part of my life up till recently. Now though my life has changed, the same as Maura and Nat tell me their's has as well, honestly I was revelling in having them in my life, making it fun and exciting and happy all over again, I love them all.

Everything we do is fun, to have people so close to do things with together, something that's not been all that big a part of my life up till now. Just thinking of some of our shopping expeditions when we're together makes me smile. Liv, Jane and to a lesser extent Ana aren't all that big on going shopping, especially fashion shopping, they can find a thousand other things they'd rather be doing, though they'll usually come with us to make us happy, just as often though they succeed in coaxing us into doing something, anything, different to get out of being our very special shopping bag holders.

Don't get me wrong, I like shopping at least as much as the next girl, especially if I can do it with Nat and Maura, that isn't really shopping though, that's pure fun, something we don't get enough opportunity to do. I normally buy really good quality clothes in timeless styles so that its money well spent. I still have some of my earliest tailored suits and they still fit perfectly, something I'm quietly proud about. I like looking good, it does a girl's confidence good to be looked at and admired, wanted even, though with Liv there's never any doubt as to who I'm going home with, I'm a one woman girl and honestly I've never been happier.

If I have a weakness it's for designer gowns, evening gowns to be particular. At work my suits are just well, suits, the tailoring details might change but there's a certain standard about what I wear in court, expectations to meet, but evening gowns are a statement, they tell the world who you are when you are on display, so I always take extra care about what I'm wearing for an evening out. While Liv rolls her eyes when an invite says formal, I look forward to it, a chance to step outside normal convention and spend an evening just looking my best.

Liv isn't really a gowns girl, not if she can get out of it, but after the Ball, seeing her in a tailored tux, I have a feeling that she's going to be wearing suits a lot more often, after all she looked amazing that night and I wanted her to dress like that again soon. Some people might think it's a bit stereotypical, a bit butch even, but who cares, if someone looks at her and thinks I'm the femme and she's the butchy one in our relationship, let them, we both know the truth, we swap roles often enough in bed that the labels don't mean much to us anymore, not unless we're doing a little role play.

I have to say being out is a bit of a relief, it means I don't have to hide who I love anymore, which also means I can avoid a lot of the guys who try to pick me up.I've been turning guys down all my life, ever since I realised that guys didn't do it for me, that I preferred the attention and company of women, sure I've had the occasional man bag on my arm at appropriate events when it's absolutely required, mostly family-related gatherings where I absolutely had to have a date, but the guys I've been seen out with are beards, nothing more. I know two or three gay guys who keep their preferences under wraps for one reason or another so we've reached an agreement, they're my camouflage and I'm theirs at events where we have to bring a partner of the opposite sex. An arrangement that's worked out well up until recently.

Our recent, almost accidental outing at work means that for the most part those days are over, I can be open with having Olivia on my arm, open being affectionate. The guys in the DA's office and SVU are fine with us being together or if not, smart enough to keep their mouths shut. With my mom gone and my dad drifting away from cancer and rarely lucid these days it's not like I'm protecting them from hurtful sneers and gossip anymore; they didn't approve of Liv so we kept it quiet, in part for their benefit, but now I'm happy to admit to anyone who asks that I am no longer single and happy to be hers.

My cell rang, the sudden noise startling me out of my reverie; checking the number I saw Kate Beckett's name there and answered it happily. A few minutes later I hung up after wishing her a great weekend. Maura, Jane, Ana and Nat were coming to visit in a fortnight and when her partner Rick had found out, he'd offered to squire us to a Broadway show. I wasn't sure which one we were going to, Rick apparently was trying to get us box seats to any number of the most popular shows which would be wonderful.

I was also really looking forward to sitting down with Maura and Natalie, to see them for myself, they'd had a series of damned close shaves in Los Angeles chasing down that bent cops case and even though I'd spoken to them regularly since, I just wanted to see them in person, silly I know but I just wanted to reassure myself that they were all right.

Rick was going to be our escort for our night out as Liv, Jane, Ana and Kate herself had apparently already agreed that they were having a poker night while we were out; for a moment I regretted not being part of their game, I like the psychological aspects of poker, bluffing and seeing through the other players, it uses a lot of the same skills I bring to play in court. Still, seeing a Broadway show with Nat and Maura as Rick's guest sounded like a wonderful way to spend an evening and knowing Rick, he'd make sure it was a special night, dinner, a show and drinks afterwards was apparently all on the menu so I couldn't wait.

That brought me to Kate and Rick; since Kate and Liv had reconnected at the Mayor's Ball they'd rekindled a closeness that I'd only seen her build with Jane, Ana and her old partner Stabler. Not surprising really given Kate and Liv had been partners years before, now though we caught up regularly, spending time together with two really great people, even if Liv had scowled when Kate had told her that she was going to try and get me to handle her homicide cases, telling Kate in a low growl to 'go get your own prosecutor, this one's mine'. I still remembered Kate's peal of laughter at successfully getting a rise out of Liv, drawing a smile at the memory.

With a rattle of keys at the door I looked up to see Liv arrive home, she's been up at that ratty gym she frequents, I'd been there once; it's old, like something you'd see out of the first Rocky movie, its all barbells and weights and pull-up bars, kettle bells and punching bags and a boxing ring, there's not a circuit machine to be found, the floor is scarred old wood where it isn't lino and concrete, nothing like the gym I occasionally go to when the weather's too miserable to go for a run and I feel the need to get that burn and those lovely, lovely endorphins you get after hard exercise. That one's full of women in fashionable Lycra and men in shorts and singlets designed to show off their expensively acquired muscles; at Olivia's its full of young kids working out their aggression in the ring, not on the streets, surrounded by people for whom fitness was about how they lived their lives, not how good they looked to each other.

I'd gone along once, in part because I was a little concerned about my girlfriend alone in a gym in a not terribly nice part of town that seemed mostly to cater to guys, the reality was that no one paid her any heed, she worked out in a tee and track pants, only pulling them off to reveal the shorts underneath when she got in the ring to spar. I'd been surprised that there were no cat calls and come ons, for her or me; or at least I had been until I met the owner that is, an ex-marine named Mickey who was a polite, if intimidating sculpture of muscle and sinew and tattoos. He'd explained that he had rules, break them once and you got a warning, break them a second time and you were out on the street, never ever allowed back.

One of those rules was to treat women inside these walls like you'd treat your mom, be nice, respectful and watch what you say and how you act, or else. I'd nodded then carefully glanced around, to see those people looking my way had smiled and nodded politely, making me smile back. Ever since then I'd not worried about Liv being there, despite first appearances it was a safe place for women.

I knew intellectually that Liv could take care of herself but that didn't mean I didn't worry about her, the job she did was dangerous but it was also an integral part of who and what she was. Maura and Nat had said the same thing; that they worried about Jane and Ana the same way I did about Liv but wouldn't change them; how could they, it had made them the women they loved, something I'd totally agreed with.

Now though she was home, her skin still a little flushed and I knew her muscles would still be sharply defined and a little pumped up from her workout, something I loved to run my hands over. She walked in, took me in sitting there surrounded by work and smiled happily over at me.

"Hi angel" I smiled up at her as I replied.

"Hi tiger, have a good session?" Liv dropped her bag inside the door then walked my way.

"Yeah, not too bad though I think I might try upping the weight a little next time, I kinda think I've plateaued at the current weights" She leaned over and gave me a kiss, initially chaste, then less so as I pushed a little, getting a welcome response before she pulled back and spoke."Uh babe, I'm all hot and stinky after the gym so I'm gonna go take a shower" I smiled; that was just what I wanted to hear as I looked her over then spoke.

"Okay, see you soon"

I watched her walk away, already peeling off her hoodie, revealing the sculpted definition under her stretched tee that I'd come to love, even more visible after her work-out as I unconsciously moistened my lips. Liv had called me a muscle bunny once, I'd hotly denied it but seeing her like this, all hot and sweaty and ripped always got my motor running. She turned the corner, heading for our en-suite bathroom as I turned my attention to the paperwork and files laid out all round me. I'd got through well over half of it and decided I deserved a reward for being so diligent, plus my favorite reward was getting soaped up under the shower right about now.

Twenty seconds later and I was leaving a trail of clothes behind me on the way to the bathroom, sliding the glass door to the shower open to find Liv dragging the soap-filled loofah across her washboard abs, the sight lighting a fire down low as she lifted her gaze to take me in appreciatively, a small smile appearing as she took in my lack of clothes. I slowly and very obviously let my eyes rake up and down over her spectacular body and then spoke.

"I thought I'd come help you get to all this hard to reach places...make sure you're really clean" Liv's smile widened at my words before it turned a little wolfish, her voice low and needy.

"I have a few places that could really benefit from your...help" I stepped inside the shower, closing the door then turned back to her, lifting my hand up and holding the index and middle finger together and wiggling them as I smiled, a little hungrily, and spoke.

"Oh Liv, I'm more than happy to…help"


	89. Chapter 89

**Intersecting Line Book 2 **

**89 New York Poker Night**

Anastasia's viewpoint

The game was five-card stud; the beer was good and the company even better, sitting at the table in the loft Rick Castle and Kate Beckett shared. The place was really nice, pretty large for a New York loft as benefits a best-selling author and his inspiration but full of touches that proclaimed this to be a very individual home, not a 'Better Homes' showcase.

The life-sized Boba Fett in the bathroom being a case in point, he'd scared the shit out of me when I walked in and turned round. Once I'd recovered I'd smiled a little nastily to myself and resolved not to tell Jane, I'd rather wait for her squeal when she spotted him and give her hell about it afterwards. Now back at the table and Jane was dealing as I looked over at Kate and smiled.

"Thanks for the game Kate, when Liv told us how good you two were at poker we had to get a game in" She smiled in return.

"My pleasure, it's a nice change of pace, but good fun" Jane looked up as she dealt the last of the cards.

"Yeah Kate, thanks for organizing the box at Wicked for the girls too, they've really been looking forward to it" Kate just smiled and nodded.

"It was our pleasure" I nodded as well.

"We appreciate Rick taking the time to escort them tonight; I hope it's not too much of an imposition" She laughed, a happy sound full of joy.

"No, not at all, besides its Castle we're talking about here, squiring three beautiful women round New York is right up his alley. Plus it has the benefit that it'll send the gossip columns into a frenzy, they kinda got used to us being together, some paparazzi shots of him out at dinner and a show with someone new will liven things up" I frowned.

"You don't mind?" Kate shook her head.

"Nah, we know the truth. Besides, I don't mind messing with the media from time to time. God knows they've caused me enough grief over the years" Jane looked up and smiled, holding her fist out across the table.

"Amen sister" Kate grinned and they bumped fists before Kate looked round the table and spoke.

"It's a shame in a way though, Alex mentioned she would have liked to play" Liv just shook her head and looked her way as she spoke.

"She might, but we wouldn't" Kate looked surprised as she turned to face her former partner, that surprise reflected in her voice.

"Oh, why not?" Liv shrugged before speaking.

"There's a reason we don't want those three playing, they'd clean us out" Kate frowned, obviously thinking Liv was messing with her though I knew better as Kate asked the obvious question.

"You're joking right?" Jane and I shook our heads as Liv chuckled, a little ruefully and started explaining.

"I wish I was. Nope, Alex's a lawyer, she's smart as, has a good memory and a poker face to die for; you can't read her. Years ago I made the mistake of getting into a game with her and some friends of hers, Connie Rubirosa, Serena Southerlyn and Casey Novak, all three are lawyers too. They cleaned me out" She grinned at the memory. "When I ran out of money they offered to let me use my clothes as a stake, but I knew I'd end up naked in front of them so I passed" Kate laughed.

"I bet Alex wouldn't have minded though" Liv smirked in response.

"Probably not, but I didn't want to give the others a show" Seeing she'd finished Jane looked over her cards at Kate and spoke up.

"Kate, there's two reasons you don't want Maura in a card game. One, she's a certified MENSA genius so she can remember the cards already dealt perfectly and she does the mathematical probabilities for each card turning up in her head" Jane shook her head slowly. "For her it's a mathematical exercise. Trust me, its just plain humiliating" Kate nodded slowly. "Secondly, Maura's a student of reading facial expressions, so she can pick up other people's tells really quickly" Kate pursed her lips and then spoke.

"Handy skill to have in an interrogation" Jane smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I've had her in sometimes when everything else fails, it's helped occasionally" Kate nodded again thoughtfully and then looked over at me.

"What's Natalie's secret?" I smiled, remembering learning some pretty humiliating lessons early on in our relationship then explained.

"One, Nat's an expert at letting people see what they need to see in her face, maybe not as good as Alex but she's still pretty good. Secondly she's good at reading people, obviously not at Maura's level but not bad and finally, she worked her way through college by fleecing people in poker games. Most saw the dumb blonde act, right up until she took them for all they were worth" I smiled. "She's good enough to have played in some of the local Pro-Am poker tournaments in Denver to help pay for her tuition through college, something I learned the hard way when we first started going out together, so no, you don't play Nat for money in poker"

"Or Alex"

"Or Maura either" Kate pursed her lips for a second before nodding and smiling as she discarded two cards and threw a chip into the centre, holding up two fingers to Jane,

"I'll remember that" As Jane passed the cards across Liv smirked and spoke up.

"On the other hand, we could let them play Rick, for extra embarrassment he could put his clothes up as a stake" She sniggered, obviously imagining it. "Time it right and you could walk in to find him there in his boxers, about to lose" Kate just shook her head and reached for her new cards but her smile had turned a little nasty, as if she was picturing it with some relish.

A few rounds later and the stakes had edged a little higher, Liv and Kate were both pretty good so I decided to mess with Kate, just a little.

"It's nice of Rick to take the girls out, though he was kinda sad he couldn't stay and play, but I told him your virtue was safe with us" I saw a curious expression pass across Kate's face as she replayed what I'd said then she looked up at me, a question in her eyes as she spoke.

"My virtue?" I smirked as I replied.

"Well, he did leave you alone with three unrepentant lesbians and you are a beautiful woman…" I threw in a lecherous leer and waggled my eyebrows, getting a laugh from the other three. Jane decided to run with it, reaching over and patting Kate's arm gently.

"Don't worry honey, I'll take really good care of you" Kate just shot her a dirty look, before the laugh spilled out.

"Yeah right, you forget I've seen Maura, like you'd ever be interested in someone else" Jane snickered as I thought back to not long after we'd just met, grinning at the memory before I shared it with the others.

"You weren't there when she offered Nat a place in her harem" Liv and Kate's heads both swung to look at me, then in unison at Jane who just shrugged under their enquiring gaze.

"What can I say, I have hidden talents" Liv's mouth quirked.

"Hidden? Buried more likely" She got an exclamation and a filthy look from Jane.

"Hey!" Kate snickered at the byplay, before looking round at us and speaking.

"Good thing Maura's the gentle, forgiving type; you don't want an M.E. pissed at you. God knows I try not to get Lanie; our M.E., mad at me" She looked round the table. "That woman can be scary, plus there's the whole 'they can make you disappear without a trace' thing they have going" Liv nodded slowly.

"Good point, I try and keep Melinda, she's our M.E., happy for just that reason" Kate looked up at me and smiled, then dragged us back to the original discussion.

"So what'd Castle say?" I smiled at the memory of his dry rejoinder.

"That he'd be very, very disappointed if we turned you onto women" Kate nodded slowly, thinking it over.

"Yeah, the sex change operation he'd need then would be messy. I kinda like him the way he is" Jane sniggered.

"Yeah, no offence but I don't think he'd make a good girl" Kate got a sly grin as she looked across at Jane from the corner of her eye and spoke up.

"I dunno, he does have a sensitive side, maybe he can get in touch with his inner femininity" Liv grinned before replying.

"Yeah, the right dress…" I had to chip in.

"The right wig…" Jane smirked and added her two cents.

"Heels…" Kate nodded, trying to keep a straight face and failing.

"Makeup…" We dissolved into chuckles at the thought before Kate slowly shook her head.

"Nah, it'd be fun to see but I like him just the way he is" There were smiles all round before Liv upped the ante. A couple of hands later and the results were pretty even, Jane wasn't an amazing player but competent enough, but I'd played enough barracks room games to be pretty good at most forms of poker. Across the table Liv was good but obviously a bit out of practice, Kate though was deadly, she was an aggressive bidder but seemed to know just how far to push, winning more than her share and not losing too many big hands. She folded in the face of Jane's bid as the deal passed to me, while Kate filled us in on their activities, they'd spent the morning together while Liv and Rick had given Jane and I a tour of some of the less well known sights of New York, well off the beaten track.

Alex had arranged for front row seats at Fashion Week's biggest runway shows for Kate, Nat, Maura and herself courtesy of Miranda Priestly's office. They'd ended up sitting across from a couple of heiresses and the three Olsen sisters and just a few seats down from some of the Kardashians and half a dozen seats up from Taylor Swift and Karli Koss.

"You could tell we were being scoped out by the regulars, wondering who the hell we were to get front row seats" Kate shook her head a little as she regailed us with the tale. "Or at least they were until Miranda arrived" Liv chuckled, a little evilly I thought, then spoke.

"Bet that went down well" I frowned Liv's way, not getting it until Kate explained.

"Yeah, she walked in, looked around, spotted us and walked right over to say hello" I smiled.

"Now I know what Liv was saying, let me guess, serious stink eye?" Kate's laugh was light and quick before she finally settled enough to continue.

"You have no idea, why the hell we weren't dead and buried from all the hate coming our way I don't know" She shrugged then continued. "We all gave her a hug and the evil eye was scary. Nat mentioned it to Miranda and she just smiled like the cat that got the canary, told us that I carried a gun so there was nothing to worry about, we should ignore the, and I quote, '_the bitter stares of the envious peons_' and that we should enjoy the show" Kate smiled a little wider. "We all gave her another hug and then she swept off to the seat of honour at the end of the runway, leaving everyone around us staring at us wondering who the hell we actually were" Jane rubbed her chin for a moment then spoke, looking round at Liv.

"Did Alex set that up?" Liv shook her head, smiling as she spoke.

"Nope, that was all Miranda, she likes to keep people on their toes" She smiled a little nastily. "All of the 'fashpack' will be practically crapping themselves that there were these four beautiful women there that no one recognised but who warranted a personal approach from Miranda Priestly, high goddess of fashion herself and New York's arbiter of style and taste. That's going to unsettle them something fierce, which amuses Miranda plus keeps her critics and rivals off balance" Kate nodded.

"Thus achieving several goals at once" Liv nodded in reply.

"Exactly" She smiled around the table. "It also helps that Miranda, Andrea and Emily all like us, in fact Miranda and Andrea both asked after you all when we last caught up with them for lunch at their place" I shook my head at the thought of Miranda Priestly being remotely interested in us while Kate spoke up.

"I just don't get that sort of fashion. I love the chance to dress up in something nice, be feminine for a change and just get to enjoy being a woman, but way too much of the stuff I saw today was completely impractical" Jane nodded at her words then replied.

"That's what I thought too, apparently though that's the stuff that will inspire other designers, or so Maura tells me"

"Yeah, Alex says the same thing" Liv shrugged. "She's being going to these things on and off for years, so she has closets full of dresses, some of which she's barely worn" Kate looked her way and spoke.

"Really, I thought she lived in skirt suits" Liv shrugged.

"That's work wear, from what I hear Nat's kinda similar, lots of skirts and some dresses"

"She does like pant's suits, especially with heels, it makes her legs look even longer" Jane just sniggered.

"I bet you're not complaining" At Kate's questioning look she shrugged then explained. "Ana here's a complete leg slut, drools all over Nat's" She shrugged. "I've caught her eyeing mine off so you'd better watch yourself, she's probably already checked yours out too" I narrowed my eyes at being caught before I snapped off a reply.

"Says the woman who can't keep her eyes out of Maura's cleavage" I glanced at Kate. "Jane here is a completely smitten with boobs" I waved at my chest with the hand not holding cards as I explained. "Mine, Liv's, but especially Maura's" Kate nodded with a smile, then kicked the can down the road a bit further.

"They are kinda nice" Jane smiled, unfazed about the discussion.

"Some of the perverts back in Boston called em the rack of god" Liv sniggered.

"Not if they knew you were around, right?" Jane shrugged, but I could see the barely-hidden smirk there as she replied.

"Not if they knew what was good for them they didn't"

We played a few more rounds as the chips shifted from one person's pile to the other and back again while the subjects continued to wander, the latest one being partners, with Kate holding forth while Liv retrieved more beers from the fridge.

"I've been really lucky with partners; I've got two good ones, Ryan and Esposito, both really good guys that have been backing me up for years, plus for the last few there's been Castle as well" Jane looked across at her and nodded.

"Yeah, you need good people having your back. Back in Boston I worked with a grizzled old sergeant named Korsak who had been round the block a few times, plus my partner was a young guy named Frost. He was a good cop and had good instincts but a weak stomach when it came to bodies, but still a good guy" Kate raised an eyebrow at that

"A homicide detective with a weak stomach?" Jane looked over and nodded once as she replied.

"Yep, he ended up losing his lunch more often than not when he first started out. Maura ended up helping him get over the worst of it, having him sit in on her autopsies and getting used to being round bodies" She grinned. "Mind you a good decomp can still set him off" There were nods all round the table at that as Liv passed around the longnecks and sat down, we'd all had bad one's where we'd lost it. "Now I'm in Major Crimes well, our boss, she moves us round from time to time to make sure we work well with everyone"

"What about you Liv?" Liv had just sat down and picked up her cards, she glanced up and spoke.

"I had a partner for most of my time at the 1-6, but Elliot up and quit a few years back, I guess the job finally got to him, plus he figured his marriage was more important than the job" I nodded at that, seeing similar reactions from the others as Liv continued. "Now I've got a couple of people who back me up, Fin, Rollins and Amaro. While Fin Tutuola's got plenty of experience, the other two are a little green but they're good people" Kate nodded as she fiddled with her cards, frowning slightly at them then glanced at me.

"And you Ana?" I shrugged; there wasn't much to tell as I explained.

"No one really, I used to get assigned a partner while I was on deployment with the army, but each new posting saw a new partner, so none of them lasted more than a year or two. When I joined the bureau I was assigned one when I went to Seattle, he was a more senior agent assigned to keep an eye on the rookie. He wasn't too pleased to learn that the rookie had more investigative experience than he did, plus he didn't like it that I wasn't all that deferential to a guy I didn't particularly respect"

"He was an asshole?" It was Liv. I nodded as I expanded on the story.

"In his world rookies were seen and not heard. It was so bad that he wouldn't listen when I had a theory or experience that might have helped, instead he'd tell me that if he wanted my opinion he'd tell me what it was, until then I should shut up and do what I'm told" Jane looked over at me and shook her head, a disgusted expression on her face.

"Jesus, what was his problem?" I grimaced as I answered.

"He'd gone through a real messy divorce; he worked long hours and liked to unwind afterwards with a few too many beers at the bar, the wife got tired of being home alone waiting for him to come home drunk so she decided to find someone else to keep her warm on those long cold Seattle nights. She was sleeping with a toy boy, he found out and the divorce wasn't long afterwards" Liv nodded sagely and spoke up.

"So he was in the all 'women are bitches' stage?" I nodded as I replied.

"Pretty much" Jane shook her head as she commented.

"That sucks" I glanced at her and spoke.

"Yep, one of the reasons I was happy to put my hand up for the Seattle PD Liaison role" Kate looked over at me and spoke up.

"That sounds interesting, how'd that work out?" I looked back over at her and smiled.

"Not bad, I turned out to have a bit of a talent for it, plus it's rarely dull, you're exposed to the full gamut of operations across the force, especially for a smaller operation like the Seattle PD, the FBI provided a lot of technical support that they might lack" I shrugged. "The LAPDs a hell of a lot bigger and better resourced so their support requests tend to be more information based, not technical"

We were out of beer so Kate did a beer run while Liv and I chatted; Jane excused herself to go to the bathroom as I watched carefully. Liv worked out what I was watching for and sniggered a little.

"You hoping he scares the shit out of her too" I glanced her way and raised an eyebrow as she went on. "I saw your face when you came out of there, don't worry, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I turned around and found him there" I nodded ruefully.

"Yep, me too" We kept our eyes on the door, sharing a slight smirk when we heard a muted '_what the fuck!_' from that direction, a few seconds later Jane exited, shaking her head slightly as Liv and I shared another happy glance. Both Jane and Kate returned to the table with Kate passing out the next round of beers, straight from the bottle, perfect to go with a poker game and the big bowl of salted peanuts, before she looked over at Jane and then me.

"So tell me about this case of yours, Liv mentioned you'd been targeted by some crooked cops?" I let Jane handle it.

"Yeah, one of our friends, Sharon, she's head of the IA section that looks into police shootings, she was following up on a case that didn't look or smell right. Maura provided enough evidence to get her looking into it again, helped by my boss Brenda" I took a quick sip of the beer, not my usual but it was a nice one nonetheless as Jane continued. "Turns out the shoot was dirty, cops were being paid to act as hit men for the Sinaloa cartel. They'd started out taking down people in witness protection, people who'd turned against Sinaloa, before they branched out into contract hits" Kate's jaw dropped, even Liv looked surprised, she hadn't heard the full story.

"You have got to be kidding me" Kate looked round the table. "Cops?" Jane nodded slowly.

"I didn't wanna believe it either, but yep" At that Liv frowned.

"How did they find the WitSec people? Justice is a pain in the ass about that, I've had to deal with them and they usually refuse to cooperate" I remembered Alex had spent time in WitSec, though Liv had known she was still alive. Jane looked over at me.

"They are that, fortunately we had someone who could open doors" I nodded and chimed in.

"That's where I came in, after a lot of digging it turned out the sister of one of the crooked cops was a data entry manager with Justice, cleared to access the WitSec files" Kate's eyes widened, the reply forced out of her.

"Oh shit!" I nodded and continued.

"Yeah, she'd pass on info to her brother who'd negotiate a price with Sinaloa for the job. They killed seven WitSec protectees, that's in addition to the ones they killed when they started branching out" Liv frowned at that then asked the question.

"Branching out?" I looked at Jane and she took up the story.

"Yeah, they started contracting out to Sinaloa for other kills, members of other cartels, other contenders for turf, competitors in the drug trade, we still don't know exactly how many they killed, the info we have is from one of the secondary people, the two ringleaders still won't talk" She shrugged. "Our best guess is somewhere over a dozen people, but it could be higher" Liv shook her head.

"Jesus, what a mess" I nodded ruefully.

"Yep, the court case is going to be open and shut, but there are so many intricacies to the prosecution's case that it's not going to be a short one" Jane nodded in agreement as she spoke.

"Not helped by the fact that the forensic evidence that kicked the whole investigation off was collected by the person in charge of the LAPD Medical Examiner's office, Maura, who also happens to be a witness for the prosecution given she was the target for two attempts on her life" They both shook their heads but before either could speak there was a rattle of keys in the door of the loft, attracting our attention, the door opening as we looked round to see Rick usher first Maura, then Alex and Natalie inside as Liv smiled widely and spoke up, our earlier discussion shelved.

"Hey guys, how did it go?" They smiled happily, Alex just beating Natalie.

"Great"

"Fantastic" Maura smiled happily at us.

"It was wonderful Jane" Kate chipped in.

"And did the paperazzi get their images?" Rick smiled widely as the others laughed, the happiness evident in his voice.

"Did they ever" Natalie was next, grinning happily.

"They went nuts"

"The images will be everywhere tomorrow" Alex added, Rick nodding as he helped the girls out of their coats and hung them up on the coatrack next to the door before speaking.

"Heading into dinner at Café Carlyle, then at the show and again at the Rum House for drinks afterwards, so the gossip sites will be full of shots of Rick Castle, playboy author, seen here with a mystery blonde, or three" Liv frowned.

"You really don't like them do you?" Rick shrugged himself out of his coat and hung it with the rest by the door as he replied.

"I used to consider them a necessary evil, part of the job, until several of them suggested I should dump Kate because she was 'old news' and give them some scandal" His face showed all too obviously just what he thought of that. "Well after that, it was open season. They'll run shots of me with someone else, telling everyone that I've dumped Kate for some gorgeous blonde, only for us to turn up together sometime soon" He smiled fondly at Kate then continued. "Then I'll let one of the better, more widely-read gossip writers know that I'm still with Kate and that the rest of their competition got it all wrong, which should make their lives uncomfortable for a while, which is all they deserve" Jane shook her head and spoke.

"Wow, they have pissed you off" His smile was quick and easy.

"That they have, so anything I can do to make their lives unpleasant is fair game"

By this time Nat had wandered over and I'd stood, giving her a deep kiss and getting an even deeper one back. We stood there for a moment, arms around each other, heads close as we chatted quietly.

"You have fun Blondie?" She nodded happily, keeping her voice down.

"It was so much fun Tsarina, it's a shame you didn't come though" I smiled a little wider.

"We had a good time too, a little different from yours but still fun" She smiled.

"I'm glad you did. Maybe you can come with us next time" I smiled.

We'll see" We turned to the others to see that they had been busy welcoming their partners too. Finally everyone came up for air. Maura was the first to speak.

"While tonight was wonderful, it would have been even more enjoyable if you had accompanied us" Liv shrugged.

"We don't get these sort of opportunities often, so we had to make the best of it when we could" Jane nodded.

"Maybe when you guys next come out we could do something like this?"

Alex and Liv both nodded, making me realise that would mean the others wouldn't be there. I turned to them and spoke up.

"Hey, you guys have to come and visit us too, we'd love to have you come out to LA" Natalie's support was quick.

'Oh yeah you have to come over" I glanced across at Jane and got a confirming nod from her and Maura before I continued."Have you been out to LA?" I noticed Rick and Kate exchanging a glance before Rick spoke.

"Yeah, I've been there a few times, mostly book publicity tours plus we were there on a visit to the studio where they were making Heat Wave. We haven't really had the opportunity to get out there for a holiday though" Jane smiled.

"Then you've got to come out. If you could time it with a visit by Liv and Alex that'd be even better" Maura nodded.

"Indeed, you could stay at our home, we have more than enough room and we would get to spend our time together" I saw Kate and Rick exchange another look as they both smiled before Kate turned to us.

"That'd be nice, we'd have to try to arrange some time off though" Rick nodded.

"It's a lot easier for me than Kate, her boss is a bit of a hard case" I noticed Liv's frown as she asked.

"I know it used to be Montgomery, who's your boss these days?" Kate's voice was deadpan.

"Captain Victoria Gates" Liv's eyebrows climbed skywards, surprise evident in her voice as well.

"Iron Gates, ex-NYPD Internal Affairs, that Gates?" Kate nodded as she spoke.

"The same, she's mellowed a bit since she got here" Liv's shook her head as she replied.

"She'd want to; the woman had no heart or soul when I knew her. I'm surprised she ever left IA" Kate shrugged.

"She's not as bad as her reputation" She pulled a quick face before continuing. "But then I don't think anyone could have been" We chatted for a couple of minutes about what we'd do when they came out to LA, Alex and I working around the espresso machine getting everyone set with their choice of coffee then moving over to the lounges where the conversation continued. An off-topic question from Alex caught my attention.

"How was the game?" I turned and smiled at her as I answered.

"Not bad, it was a good way to pass the hours while you were out" Jane nodded.

"Yeah, pizza, beer and a night of poker, pretty damned good actually" Maura smiled.

"At least you all had fun, even if you were not able to join us this time" Rick smiled.

"Yeah, I'd love to get into a game" Nat nodded.

"Me too" Alex smiled from where she was sitting in Liv's lap.

"Same here, I haven't got a game in for a while" I was about to say something when a nasty thought came to mind. I leaned over to whisper in Nat's ear.

"Just go with me on this, okay?" I got a head turn and a slight lift of an eyebrow before she nodded before I turned back to address the room. "We've kinda played ourselves out, but I'm sure we'd like to watch you four play, what about it Rick?" I saw a sudden simultaneous narrowing of the eyes on Kate, Jane and Liv's faces as Natalie, true to her word, jumped in.

"That'd be excellent, I'd love to" Alex and Maura looked to their lovers, getting quick nods in return as Rick turned to Kate and asked her.

"Well, if the others don't mind...you don't mind do you Kate?" She smiled guilessly.

"Of course not Castle, it'd probably be fun, just don't be too hard on them" She turned to take us in. "Rick loves his poker, he claims to be a better player than me"

"That's because I am!" Kate smiled at Rick sudden outburst and waved at the table, still set up with chips and cards.

"Then be my guest" I glanced at Nat and winked.

"If you're up for it Blondie" She smiled at me then turned to the others.

"I'm in if you are" Maura and Alex exchanged a look, then in unconscious synchronisation both turned to their lovers, getting smiles and support.

"Go kick his ass Angel"

"Have fun babe" Kate nodded.

"We'll just sit back and watch the show" Rick stood, rubbing his hands together and smiling widely.

"This is going to be great" Kate nodded, keeping a nasty grin well hidden as she spoke

"It sure will be" Rick didn't understand Liv's, Jane's and my wide grins, but he would, soon enough.


	90. Chapter 90

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

The rights to the characters in this and all other chapters of this work belong to the original rights holders, with the exceptions of Anastasia Romanov and Natalie Dearing, they, in all their sexy, kinky glory, belong to me. :)

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**90 Night Games**

Natalie's viewpoint

The afternoon had turned to early evening and Ana and I were snuggled on the couch, chatting. As regularly happened our light teasing had taken a sudden turn towards flirting as the conversation veered into things sexy. We'd been arguing good-naturedly about whom was doing more of the housework, which of course Ana claimed was her, something I heatedly denied.

"You shouldn't be so sure Tsarina, keep it up and you'll be sleeping in the other bed tonight" It was a hollow threat and we both knew it; we never sleep apart if we can help it; we always slept better together.

"So you're going to toss me out into a cold bed, frustrated and lonely?" I smiled, teasing her was fun.

"Maybe" Ana was unimpressed, something her voice easily conveyed.

"In that case maybe I should look around for a substitute, someone to ease the pain of being alone" I raised my eyebrow, my voice mocking her.

"Why, big bad agent girl can't handle being alone for one night?"

"Well, a girl's got needs and if you aren't there to satisfy me…" She let the sentence die with a suggestive wink as I looked at her, pouting as I asked the question.

"So, am I not enough for you anymore Tsarina?" I got a wicked grin; she knew I was teasing her.

"Perhaps" I smiled as I spoke, continuing our game.

"Got anyone else in mind?" Ana arched an eyebrow as she spoke.

"Well, now that you mention it…" I moved to get comfortable on the sofa, when we played these games it usually ended up with us both of us hot, sweaty and very satisfied. I knew she was asking if I wanted to play, something I was happy to let her know in the affirmative.

"C'mon spill" Ana leaned back, a lazy smile appearing.

"Well, I did find Kate Beckett very tasty" I felt a little shiver run through me at Ana's words. Kate was stunning, totally gorgeous, I could still see her at the ball, wrapped in that Herve Leger dress she'd turned heads, I could see why Ana had chosen her, plus we'd had a wonderful time with her in New York last weekend but we still had our game to play now.

"Typical, another hot blonde, you so have a type Tsarina, so predictable" Her smile grew into a grin, totally unfazed.

"I have it on good authority that she's actually a brunette" She shrugged. "So I like tall, slim, stunning, sexy blondes…" Her finger lazily dragged down my arm. "You complaining Blondie?" I smiled and looked down, before peering up at her through my lashes.

"Noooo…" She smiled happily.

"Didn't think so, anyway, I was thinking about how hot she looked at the Charity Ball" I smiled guilelessly as I played along.

"Yeah, she looked great" The smile I got back was reflective, something I could see in her eyes, Ana was thinking back to that night, it had been magical, one I'd never forget, meeting Kate being only one of the many reasons for that, finally Ana smiled and spoke quietly.

"Sure did. I was thinking just how nice it'd be to taste that particular forbidden fruit" I tilted my head slightly, pushing out a small pout to tease her.

"I think she's straight though" Ana just waved my objection away.

"You mean to tell me you don't think that between us we could put a few kinks in that straightness" I bit my lip, knowing she liked it when I played a little coy.

"Well, when you put it like that. The idea of her between us is…interesting" Ana's grin was pure wicked and sexy as, just like her voice.

"That's a very nice image right there, imagine her pressed between us, stripping her out of that dress and having her all to ourselves" I licked my lips. The thought was tempting. Mind you that was all it'd ever be. We play this game all the time, but deep down Ana and I both have a really strong possessive streak, I could never share Ana with anyone, no matter who it might be, the same goes for Ana. Besides, when I have the love of someone who's everything I could have ever hoped for, why bother with anyone else. That said the fantasy of sharing others did make for some very interesting foreplay.

"Hmm" I pretended to consider it. "She did have nice legs and I know how much you like long, strong legs" Ana smiled, her devotion to my legs was a long running subject of much teasing between us, and started spinning her tale.

"Just imagine her standing there, pinned between us, me behind her, kissing my way along her neck, her head thrown back, resting on my shoulder to give us access, my hands on her boobs, you in front, kissing her throat, hands on her ass, Kate's hands in your hair, holding you to her, she'd love it Nat" I shifted, a little uncomfortably, the words sparking images in my head and the look in Ana's eye was making me very wet very quickly. I nodded slowly and spoke, hearing the arousal in my voice, knowing Ana would too.

"Mmm, she'd be a treat" Ana nodded slowly and replied, her voice gaining a lower timbre as she spoke, she was feeling it too.

"A very tasty treat" Ana shifted position, wedging herself into the corner of the sofa and making a 'come here' gesture, I eagerly scooted across and spun round, backing into her and feeling her arms wrap around me, her breath warm on my neck before she leaned in to kiss my throat, then pulling back, her voice low in my ear. "So what would you like us to do to her?" I snuggled back into her warm, curvy embrace, off at an angle to avoid crushing her breasts between us, instead snuggling down with my head pillowed on her shoulder.

"Oh so many things Ana, that girl's got a body we could just eat up" I felt her nod in my hair as she replied.

"It'd be lovely; slowly unzipping that dress, seeing more and more of her emerge. Letting the front fall, exposing her bra" I smiled at the thought and played along

"I bet she was wearing red under that dress, she looks like a coordinated sort of girl" I could hear the amusement in Ana's voice at my comment as she added more to our joint story.

"Yeah, a nice red silk and lace bra with a front hook" I nodded.

"I could totally see that"

"I'd get to reach around and unhook it for you Blondie, exposing her nipples" I nodded again, easily picturing it before adding to the fantasy.

"She'd probably try to cover them with her hands, not used to other women seeing them" Ana chuckled before replying.

"We'd soon fix that my love, imagine each of us working on a breast, sucking and licking and kissing, ahh, it'd be so good" I smiled to myself, seeing the images playing out, our eyes meeting over Kate's breasts, her nipples on our tongues, her moans in our ears and her scent filling our noses as we shared her taste.

"Her hands'd be in our hair soon enough Tsarina, holding us there"

"Mmm, be nice, hearing her gasp and groan, knowing we were doing that to her" I nodded, seeing the images playing out, adding my contribution as we played this back and forward game.

"Yeah, helping pull her dress lower and lower, exposing her red lace panties or maybe a thong" Ana nodded and happily played along.

"Barely covering just the essentials" I smiled as another thought came to me before speaking.

"We could kiss our way down her body, slowly sliding it down her legs, kissing all the way to her ankles, then working our way back up"

"Mmm, I could imagine her standing there, legs spread, you eating her out from the front, me from behind" Looking up I could see she had closed her eyes for a moment, obviously seeing the tableaux as she continued. "I could imagine her leaning forward, holding onto your shoulders for balance, oh Nat, I think she'd have some issues staying on her feet after we got started on her" The thought made me smile slowly, imagining Kate's taste, the feel of her under our tongues, Ana and my mouths on her, our tongues working round each other as we explored every nook and cranny, catching every drop of her wet heat. Unconsciously I moaned a little, soft but enough for Ana to hear. "Oh you like that idea don't you?" She was right, I couldn't deny it, not that I wanted to.

"God yes, she'd be delicious" Ana cocked her head at me.

"Almost makes me wish she wasn't straight" I smiled at her words.

"Yeah, Rick would object to us turning her gay though" Her chuckle was low and warm.

"I dunno, most guys love watching girls together, he'd probably be no different" I had to nod in agreement, the amount of guys who'd asked us about it when we'd been out together attested to that. Ana obviously had a thought, one she passed on.

"We could tie him up, that way he could watch, but not touch" I grinned at the thought as I replied.

"Naked, then we could keep an eye on him, see what he really likes" We swapped wicked grins, while we'd never done a threesome or even wanted to, the fantasy was hot, plus each of us had a little of the exhibitionist in us, so the thought of having an audience made it even hotter, Ana obviously thought so, I could hear it in her voice; she was very turned on.

"I'd imagine Kate'd love that, seeing him hard as a rock for her while we'd take her right in front of him. He's a pretty fit-looking guy, probably got a good body under all those tailored suits" A thought occurred to me, one I put into words.

"Heh, I could imagine her walking over to him after we've finished with her, straddling him and getting him off" Ana gave me a squeeze as she spoke, humour in her voice.

"Blondie, if she's able to walk after we've finished with her we're doing something wrong" We both chuckled at the idea before Ana's finger started tracing up and down my arm, raising both heat and goose bumps in its wake as she spoke "What would you like to do to her?" I thought about it for a second, all sorts of ideas appearing before I settled on one.

"I'd like to teach her how to make love to you with her mouth, the pair of us between your legs, teaching her all the things you like" Glancing up I saw Ana's eyes narrow in thought as she saw it playing out in her mind. "Seeing her get her first taste of a girl, hearing her moan at the taste of you, that'd be so good" When she spoke Ana's voice was low and slow, she was getting very aroused.

"Mmm, looking down and seeing you both there, heads side by side, seeing her with her eyes closed, getting used to the taste, you watching me, seeing me react to what you're doing… Mmm" I shivered slightly, this was turning into one of our better little games. It helped that Kate was utterly gorgeous, easily worth an idle daydream, let alone a filthy fantasy or two. I smiled at the thought of sharing Ana's delectable pussy with Kate, imaging our tongues swirling round each other, pausing to kiss, tasting Kate and Ana together on her lips as my hand played with Kate's ass, working her up to whatever Ana and I would do to her later.

"I'd drag my tongue through you Ana, showing her what you like, get to see her taste you for the first time" I swallowed, the imagery was wickedly delicious. "I can see her with her face buried in you, tongue as deep as she can, lapping you up while I use my hand to play with her pussy, god she'd be so wet" Ana nodded slowly, eyes closed, her voice dripping with arousal, matching my own.

"Hell yeah, that'd make me come right there, seeing you teach her, show her how to love a girl's pussy, to do it so right. Shit Nat, your making me so damn wet just thinking about it" I smiled, that after all was the idea, my own panties were quite saturated at the thought. I pushed a little further into the fantasy.

"What'd you like to do with us Tsarina?" Ana opened her eyes, the pupils so blown with lust that they appeared almost black, the heat in them was searing. Oh yes, Ana was as deeply into this as I was.

"I'd want us to have her at the same time, a strap-on each, teach her to love being taken by both of us at once" I shuddered a little at Ana's words as she continued, the images so vivid. "Watching her straddle you, sliding herself down your cock, hearing her moan, that'd be so good"

I licked my suddenly dry lips, imagining Kate's gorgeous smile as she threw her leg over me and straddled my hips, her knees against my sides, hands on each side of my shoulders, breasts hanging down as I leaned up to tongue them, my hands on her hips, guiding her down, her head thrown back as she slowly lowered herself onto my cock as that glorious tawny mane of hair tumbled down her back. Ana behind her, hands playing with Kate's breasts and holding them out for me to tongue, her lips on Kate's neck, I could imagine the moans as she ground down all the way. I felt another surge of wetness between my legs, further ruining my already sodden panties as I described the images in my head.

"Yeah, I could see you behind her as she does, hands all over her, kissing her as she rides me, pulling her down onto my cock" Ana's expression was pure lust, we'd pushed ourselves deep into the fantasy, both of us well on the way to a climax just from the images, the knowledge we were sharing this one together, building each other up together, like everything else we did, we did this better together.

"Oh god, it'd be so hot Nat, snuggled up against her, feeling her back rubbing up and down against my boobs as she rode you, pushing her hair aside so I could get at her neck, leaving bite marks and bruises all down her neck and shoulder" I took in a shuddering breath, I could see her doing it, hear Kate's cry as Ana's teeth sank in, just for a second I switched fantasies, Ana would make one hell of a sexy vampire, all pale skin, dark hair, lush body and glittering grey eyes, I'd happily give Ana my body to do as she wished with.

Mmm, turning Kate into a sexy vampire, so she could live with us as lovers forever, god that was an amazing turn on right there. I filed away the vampire fantasy for another time, though I could see some of our friends as beautiful, sexy, immortal and eternal vampire lovers. Hmmm, definitely something to come back to; maybe bring it out for a little Halloween foreplay, before I turned my mind back to our little game.

"Love to see that Ana, see you mark her as ours, once we'd finish with her, she wouldn't want anyone else" Ana smiled, a little feral as her hands started to roam over my body as she spoke.

"After having us, she'd be ruined" I matched her smile, the idea of turning Kate into our desperate lover, an addict for our attention, even if it was for a fantasy, was so hot, something Ana was obviously feeling too as she continued. "I could see her, buried all the way down on you, then I push her forward into your arms, Kate laying on you so you can kiss her, opening her up for me" I swallowed, the images were very real. I nodded slowly

"She'd taste so sweet, she's got a lush mouth, perfect for kissing" Ana nodded.

"You'd want to kiss her wouldn't you Blondie" I moaned gently at the thought of sinking my hands in her hair and plundering that mouth, feeling our tongues slipping and sliding around and over each other's, looking into those gorgeous hazel eyes as I caught her lower lip in my teeth and gently tugging it, feeling her slide her tongue into my mouth, letting her have her way with me. I nodded slowly, more and more turned on all the time, luxuriating in Ana's gently teasing touch just under my breasts as I imagined Kate's breasts brushing mine as she moved slowly, getting used to being filled, impaled on my cock.

"God yes, I'd want all of her Ana, kissing her, running my hands over her, feeling our breasts rubbing as she moves, ooh yeah" Ana's voice was lower, a little throaty, she was feeling the effects, same as I was.

"While you're keeping her occupied I'd bend over and slide my tongue over her ass cheeks, tasting her, then slide it up the cleft, into her ass, get her all wet and ready"

"I can imagine her bucking when your tongue hits her," I knew from long experience just how sensitive that area was, especially when you're just starting out. "I'd hold her down, pulling her cheeks apart for you, kissing her and keeping her distracted while you get her ready" Ana smiled slowly.

"I'd love feeling her squirm under me, pushing my tongue in and out, you spreading her ass cheeks even wider for me. I'd slide a lubed finger in, getting her opened up and ready" The images were very clear, we'd played this game so often we'd become good at it, each of us playing off the others words as I kept it going.

"I can see her face, half shocked, half turned on as you work the lube in her ass, first one, then two fingers, getting her ready" I saw Ana squirm a little at the words, she was as worked up as I was.

"Hell yeah, coating the dildo and getting it ready, then inching up behind her, getting it lined up, telling her to get ready, then pushing it in real slow" I groaned at the thought of seeing Kate taken from behind by Ana, hearing her moans and gasps and little cries, her eyes widening in shock before closing as the sensation took over, something I described to Ana.

"She'd buck and moan, feeling it go in, feeling it stretch her out, surprised and a little shocked, but so getting into it" I always did the same when Ana took me like that, just at the start before I got used to being so deliciously, naughtily full. Ana let out a little moan of her own, her eyes closed.

"Oh god that's hot, I can see it too, sliding in little by little, you holding her cheeks apart with your hands while I put one hand on her back to keep her bent over, the other guiding it in, feeling her arch under me, seeing her lying on you kissing, her hands in your hair as she's kissing you…" I swallowed; Ana's words were pushing me closer to a satisfying mini-climax. I smiled at the imagery before adding to them.

"I can see her, eyes wide as you push into her ass, moaning and groaning as it slides in and bottoms out, her eyes closing as she felt you inside her" I saw Ana wet her lips before speaking.

"Damn, feeling her under me, knowing you're in her too, stretched around both our cocks, hearing her moan and groan our names, that'd be so damn good" Ana paused for a moment, licking her lips and shifting position, like me she was getting antsy in her arousal. "Feeling her bucking under me, seeing her thrash as we stretched her out…" Ana gently moaned, soft but more than enough to send a little shiver through me, I associated that moan with having her in, on or under me. "…oh shit Nat, that's good" I knew Ana was coming with me; we were both very good at this from long practice as I pushed us along a little further.

"Blow her mind; you think Kate's a moaner or a screamer?" Ana shook her head a little as she replied.

"She's tough, she wouldn't scream, but I reckon she'd moan just fine. You'd like that wouldn't you, having her sprawled on top of you as we slowly pump her, hearing her moan your name in your ear" I might have groaned a little at the visual, I love a responsive lover letting me know they appreciate what I was doing to them, for them.

"Hell yeah, I'd love to hear her moan" Ana drove us further into it with her words painting the picture.

"We could change the tempo, speed it up, keep her off balance and drive her nuts" I smiled, Ana always was the kinky one, she'd introduced me to most of mine over the years, plus encouraged me to explore my own fantasies and kinks, before I replied.

"You just want to bury yourself all the way in and make her moan don't you Tsarina?" Ana just chuckled, low and throaty.

"Dead right, I could imagine feeding it in little by little, then gently pulling out again, getting her ass stretched, each time going a little deeper, until it's all sunk all the way in" I licked my lips before speaking.

"I could see her eyes squeeze shut when it's all the way in…" I did the same thing when Ana did it to me, though she liked to watch me as I did it to her. I felt Ana nodding as she kept painting our carnal picture.

"I can hear her, moaning and begging us to do her, to fuck her hard, slowly pulling out, almost all the way out, then sliding back, hearing the groan as it goes all the way in. knowing you're buried in her too" She smiled wickedly. "We'd get a rhythm going, as I push in she rides up on yours, then when I pull back she slides down on you" I swallowed into a suddenly dry mouth then spoke.

"Hell yeah, I can see her with her back arched, gasping and moaning, letting me suck on her nipples, she'd be so sensitive, so close" Ana's voice was full of lust, slow and throaty, the voice only I ever heard.

"We'd start speeding up Nat, feeling her slap back against me as I thrust, hearing wet skin on skin, all of us hot and sweaty and loving it" I nodded, panting softly as I lost myself in the fantasy.

"I'd be holding onto her hips as I start pushing up harder and faster, hearing her moaning and begging us to fuck her" I could see it clearly, Kate with her eyes closed, head thrown back, riding us, maybe biting her lip as she felt us filling her, stretched around us, feeling that burn, that little pain that felt so good deep inside, seeing Ana over Kate's shoulder as we surged and bucked together, our eyes locked, seeing the love there for me, just for me, always just for me...

Without warning I tensed, muscles clenching, feeling the wave that had been slowly building suddenly appear, surging through me, body arching as I cried out, Ana's arms around me, her voice in my ear telling me to let go as I shuddered and shook, the wave washing through me, carrying me to that place where everything felt perfect, balanced on the edge for a little eternity, shuddering and trembling, before I collapsed into her arms.

For a few seconds I lay there, just gasping, spent and shaken, just concentrating on feeling, before slowly coming back to where I was, hearing Ana's voice, whispering love and care to me as her strong arms held me close to her. Finally I was able to slowly turn, my lips seeking out hers instinctively, just kissing her, feeling her body soft and warm and inviting under me as we kissed for what seemed forever, full of love and devotion and need.

Finally I managed to pull away, looking up into her gorgeous face, seeing the smile and the closed eyes as I wondered how I'd ever managed to win the love of someone so special, what I'd done to be so lucky and falling just a little deeper for her once more. I stared up at her; a little awed that this woman was mine, so perfect for me, together we were perfect. Ana's eyes slowly opened as she looked down at me, her smile widening, mine matching hers, until I saw the raw need in her eyes.

"Oh god Tsarina, you haven't come yet" She shook her head, still smiling.

"It's ok, I love feeling you come in my arms" I shook my head as I turned in her arms, crawling up to get to her before attacking her mouth. No way was she going unfulfilled… I reached down, with long practice in scant seconds her pants were unbuttoned and the zipper sliding down, giving me room to slip my hand inside, pushing inside her panties and down into her very, very wet heat.

"Oh my god Ana, you're completely soaked" Ana nodded, her eyes full of arousal, her voice a low, lust-saturated murmur that did things to me deep inside.

"What'd you expect, given what we just did?" I smiled, at her words and her tone both.

"Mmm, time to fix you up" I leaned in to kiss along her jaw, nibbling and sucking as I rotated my wrist and slid two fingers straight into her moist heat, she was so wet I could probably have slid four in without a problem. Her groans were music to me, feeling her body arc under me as I entered her.

"Oh fuck that's good Nat, fuck me" In response to her plea I slid my fingers in all the way, then out again, starting a familiar, comfortable rhythm, Ana was so turned on she wouldn't last long as I kissed and licked my way down her throat, As she started to groan and whimper under me I shifted positions, one hand supporting me as I leant over her body, the other buried deep inside her.

As her hips started to move unconsciously in time with my fingers I knew her climax was getting closer, I bent in to whisper in her ear.

"Come for me Tsarina, let go and let me catch you, come for me love, don't fight it, just let go" Ana's breath was coming in faster and faster gasps as I pushed my wrist further down into her pants, allowing me to bend it so my fingers were inside her and the tip of my thumb strumming across her clit, watching as Ana's body arced higher off the sofa as we stare into each others eyes, seeing the love there.

Ana's moans were less and less intelligible, she was so close as I curled my fingers up, seeking the spot, knowing I'd hit it as Ana's jaw dropped open as she half-screamed, half-wailed my name. On target, I stimulated it again and again as Ana's body arched even higher off the sofa, balanced on her shoulders and feet, the rest of her taunt as a bow string, her hips chasing my hand as I drove her harder until, with a shuddering little cry she came, her body shaking and trembling, her molten heat spasming around my fingers.

I just crouched over her, my head buried in the crook of her neck as she writhed under me, her pants and gasps and moans filling the room, before her body gave in and she slumped back to the sofa, spent.

I gently withdrew my fingers and carefully lowered my body onto hers as her arms automatically wrapped around me, snuggling together, hearing the muted thunder of her heartbeat gently slowing as she recovered. Finally she twisted her head to look down at me.

"You comfy there?" I smiled at her tired, satiated tone, not looking up at her, happily comfortable where I was.

"Pretty much, but I suppose we should head to bed" I felt her chin move as her head nodded.

"Yeah, but not just yet" I smiled, at her words and her sleepy tone.

"A bit wasted?" Ana chuckled gently.

"Yep, thanks to you" I snuggled in a bit closer.

"It was my pleasure" Ana's arms tightened round me in response to my wriggling closer into her.

"Mine too" Silence fell over us as we lay there, wrapped in each other. I don't know how long we lay in the quiet, until Ana spoke, softly, a bit sleepily.

"That was a nice one, with Kate I mean" I nodded. We'd played this game with most of our friends as the subject at one point or other, usually to a more than satisfactory conclusion. Ana's voice came to me again, a little more sleepy. "Hope Rick knows how lucky he is" I nodded.

"They both are" I felt her chin move slightly in my hair as she nodded slowly.

"Not as lucky as us though" I chuckled softly, knowing how right she was.

Silence reigned for a while as Ana's breathing smoothed out to a regular rise and fall under me, sneaking a look I could see she'd drifted off, poor baby, she'd crashed.

I laid my head back down on her shoulder and let my eyes close, a nap sounded like a damned good idea right now, I was pretty wasted too.

I let myself drift off too, the last thing I remember was thinking that while Kate was gorgeous and sexy and stunning and Rick probably loved her more than life itself, I had Ana and she had me and I couldn't ever ask for more than that.

I'm pretty sure I slept with a smile, because I dreamt of Ana in a flowing white dress, walking towards me with flowers in her hands and love in her eyes.


	91. Chapter 91

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**91 ****Domesticity**

Maura's viewpoint

I was cleaning up after breakfast, rather enjoying the prospect of a quiet Saturday morning, particularly given the press of recent events. I'd finished my yoga workout by seven before Jane had coaxed me back into bed for a workout of a completely different kind, not that I was complaining, at all. We'd managed to work up quite an appetite before regrettably leaving our rather disheveled bed for a casual breakfast and coffee.

I'd had a shower, alone as I'd pointed out to Jane, because otherwise we'd eventually run out of hot water and be no closer to being clean than when I'd started. I'd got the patented Rizzoli eye roll and a low grumble before she'd let me go with a smile and a kiss, making me once again appreciate the good fortune which has led me to this point.

Jane had gathered the dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher, where they would remain until joined by the lunch dishes, then be washed together to save both electricity and water. Jane occasionally asks why we don't do them immediately; however I point out that we are making our small contribution to the fight against climate change and rampant energy use, at which point she normally acquiesces with a shake of the head, bringing a small smile to my lips each time.

I was examining the contents of our refrigerator, idly contemplating what I would prepare for tomorrow's pool party luncheon that we were hosting when I was interrupted by Jane's voice drifting down from the main bedroom.

"Mauraaaaa" I smiled slightly at the tone, Jane seemed somewhat put upon so I collected my coffee, cradling the cup in my hands and savouring both the warmth in my palms and the aroma drifting up from the cup as I strolled down the hall and into the bedroom.

Jane was sitting on the bed, several drawers on the dresser open, the doors to the walk in armoire ajar and several baskets for clothes requiring laundering arrayed across the room in front of her. It was a scene of domesticity which should have brought a smile to my face, except for the dark scowl Jane was directing at an otherwise innocuous item in her hands. Leaning against the doorjamb I smiled and spoke to attract her attention.

"You called darling?" Jane's head came up; her scowl not lessening at my appearance, indicating something was bothering her.

"What have you done to me woman?" I frowned slightly at the somewhat plaintively aggrieved tone then spoke.

"You will have to be rather more specific Jane, what exactly are you referring to?" She held up the offending item which I recognised as a small wash bag for delicates, in fact it was the matching wash bag for a rather nice silk and lace bra and briefs set I had worn several days ago.

"This" She shook her head before dropping the bag on the bed beside her and looking up at me "What the hell's happened to me?" I regarded Jane for a moment, gauging her mood from long practice, normally not hard, Jane wore her emotions on her sleeve, particularly when it came to our relationship.

"I am not aware that anything is wrong Jane, nor that I may have been the source of your concerns. Could you be a trifle more specific" I paused, sipped my coffee and waited.

"When did I turn into such a wimp?" I frowned slightly, while there were many names that others may choose to assign to Jane, 'wimp' was not one of them, in any of the different connotations that word might conceivably encompass, irrespective of my musings Jane continued on. "I'm sorting clothes Maura, sorting them into the stuff that gets washed and the stuff that gets dry cleaned" She grimaced. "Even the stuff that gets washed gets sorted into whites and colours and goddamned delicates for fuc… god's sake" She shook her head in exasperation. "Jesus, now I'm even self-censoring myself. When did I turn into such a whipped piece of shit?"

Jane's outburst was not completely unexpected; I had in fact expected that Jane may find herself in this situation sooner or later. Amongst Jane's defining traits are that she is fiercely independent and bears a mortal fear of being seen as overly feminine and weak. As a woman who has spent her life competing with and usually beating both her male colleagues and her overwhelmingly male adversaries, Jane has a quite distinct loathing of the sort of woman who plays on her looks and her feminine 'weakness' to achieve her goals. For one of her male colleagues to be foolish enough to even suggest she was anything like that type of woman was to invite a vicious verbal assault, one that was as acerbic as it was inventive; very few made the same mistake twice. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that despite her best efforts to hide it, Jane was a beautiful woman, one who caught the eye of all who met her.

"I fail to see a problem darling, you are simply sorting clothes as I have asked, for which I am grateful" I knew that wasn't the point, but I had decided then and there that Jane needed to talk this out.

"Since when do I sort clothes? They go in the basket, then into the washing machine, they get washed, you throw them in the dryer, they get dried. You pull them out and hang them up, all done" She shook her head again as I suppressed a shudder at her previously cavalier treatment of her clothes and tried again.

"I doubt that Donna Karan or Collette Dinnigan or Marc Jacobs or Alexander Macqueen would quite agree with you, so I am very grateful that you take the time to sort our clothes" Jane made a 'whatever' gesture before picking up the previously discarded wash bag of delicates in her hand then lobbing it, rather accurately, over ten feet across the room straight into the open mouth of the delicate clothes' basket. For a second her fists shot into the air in triumph.

"Woo, nothing but net" I suppressed a smile, not without effort, as Jane turned to me, her fists dropping and her smile falling away. "It's not that Maur, I… I'm sometimes wonder what's happening to me" I nodded slowly and walked over to sit on the bed next to her, turning my head to look into Jane's warm brown eyes.

"In what way exactly Jane?"

"I'm changing Maura, I'm not who I was" She frowned and shook her head. "That didn't come out right" Her shoulders dropped before she moved round on the bed, tucking one leg under her as she turned to face me. "Don't get me wrong, I'm happy, really, really happy with everything, you, our life together, being here" I nodded then spoke quietly.

"But you have reservations" her hair flew as Jane shook her head.

"Not really, I don't know. I'm not the person I was, I'm different, mostly a good kind of different, but sometimes I wonder" I nodded slowly, realising this was something we needed to talk out.

"Could you give me an example please Jane?" Jane's reply was swift; she had obviously given some thought to this matter.

"I'm wearing dresses, you keep dragging me off to buy me fancy clothes and get manicures and wear heels and stuff" She frowned. "I sometimes wonder what's happening to me" I smiled carefully.

"You are simply choosing to embrace other aspects of your personality Jane" I was about to say more when Jo Friday came trotting into the room, tail immediately wagging as she realised she'd found us. In three bounds she was across the room and up on the bed, immediately rolling onto her back to get a tummy rub from Jane as I continued, smiling as I did at the scene in front of me. "You are still who you were; detective, friend, daughter, sister, partner; it is just that you are exploring other parts of the whole that make up who you are" Jane paused for a moment then resumed rubbing Jo's tummy in response to the unhappy wriggle under her hand when she'd stopped before she glanced up and asked.

"Which parts are they?" I couldn't help the smile that came to my face unbidden as I spoke.

"The beautiful and loving woman I fell in love with, the devoted friend that Alex and Brenda and Anastasia and the others love, the respected member of Major Crimes, the woman I cannot wait to be married to" Jane's face softened at that last.

"Me neither babe" She smiled. "I don't care if we have a wedding big enough for a convention centre or if it's just you, me and a celebrant, all I want is to be married to you" I smiled as my heart melted a little more. Jane usually hides it from others but she can be surprisingly romantic in private, however I realised there was more here than she was saying.

"That is so sweet Jane, and you know I feel the same way as well. However this is not about that, is it Jane?" Jane was silent for a while, looking down at a happy Jo wriggling under her ministrations then spoke.

"No, it isn't." She looked up at me, then back down to Jo as she continued. "I feel like I'm changing, less the person I was, changing into something different" I nodded and spoke quietly.

"Is that a bad thing?" Jane shook her head once before replying.

"I knew who I was Maura; I don't know who I'm becoming" I nodded carefully, acknowledging her concerns.

"Most people fear change Jane, it is unsettling, the change in accepted patterns of behaviour disturbs the order and routines that we live our life by, until they settle down and we become accustomed to the new routines" I tilted my head to regard her. "What exactly has changed that disconcerts you so?"

"It's like I'm turning into a girly version of who I used to be, Little Miss Rizzoli, not Jane Rizzoli, homicide detective, and it kinda scares me a bit. I can't be that person and be good at what I do, what I am"

"Why not Jane, what about your new sense of self makes your job difficult?" She looked down at where Jo lay back in ecstasy under Jane's ministrations and spoke without looking up.

"I can't be like you or Nat or Alex, in heels and skirts and nail polish and stuff, no one would take me seriously, not the victims, not the other cops and sure as hell not the criminals" I tilted my head to regard Jane, I understood her concerns, irrational though they may seem to me, they made sense to her. On the other hand however I could see numerous flaws in her arguments, so perhaps a gentle discussion might help draw her to a more logical position, one not so discomforting to her sense of self.

"What exactly do you object to Jane?" She looked up at me and replied.

"I can't be a fashion plate and be a cop at the same time. No one would take me seriously, they'd all think I was weak, too feminine to do the job" I sat there for a moment, working through how to explain away her fears. Finally I nodded and spoke; perhaps I should use her high regard for our friends against her fears.

"Feminine does not equate to weak Jane; do you see Natalie or Alexandra as weak? They are undoubtedly feminine, as am I. Are we weak?" Her eyes widened in surprise at my words before she shook her head abruptly.

"That's different Maura and you know it. None of you are" At my raised eyebrow she fidgeted a bit before hurrying to clarify her statement. "You handle stuff that makes seasoned cops toss their cookies, Natalie willingly stands out there in front of the damned media; she takes everything they dish out and doesn't let anything faze her. As for Alex, she walks into a courtroom and sends the worst scum on earth to jail day in and day out. None of you are weak" I nodded and pushed the conversation a little forward.

"So feminine does not equate to weak? Why then Jane does it bother you so much?"

"I'm a cop, a detective, I can't look like you do, no one'd take me seriously" As I suspected this old issue raises its head once again; I smiled carefully, knowing how to deal with this.

"Nonsense Jane; both Sharon and Brenda are detectives, quite senior ones actually and both have remained feminine in outlook and dress despite their outstanding careers" Jane was quickly dismissive.

"That's different, they're both senior officers, they don't have to chase down suspects in their heels and skirts" Nodding, I decided to pursue a different tack, choosing someone far more like her in outlook as an example.

"Anastasia can be found wearing skirts and heels as part of her normal daily wear from time to time; however no one is suggesting she is weak"

"That's different too Maura, she's not usually out chasing down suspects" At that slight misrepresentation of the truth I raised an eyebrow and waited, as it turned out not long at all. "Well not normally" I nodded once and replied.

"Very well, I may grant you that for the sake of the argument however Kate Beckett is a truly stunning woman, nothing she wears can hide that, not even her usual jeans or slacks and a jacket; everyone who meets her is aware that she is a beautiful woman however that does not make her less of a very successful homicide detective nor lessen the respect of her peers" I tilted my head to regard her. "In fact in so many ways she reminds me very much of you" Jane opened her mouth then shut it again, obviously thinking it through as I sent a quick mental vote of thanks to Kate for her unwitting but welcome example, before continuing.

"Change is not necessarily a bad thing Jane, all organisms change and adapt as they meet life's challenges and opportunities, thus ensuring that they continue to survive in an often hostile environment. You are a more singular example than most, partly because your choice of career is so stressful and the challenges so extreme" I smiled. "You have adapted as needed to meet those challenges; some are simply more overt than others" I gestured towards the clothes baskets. "Others perhaps less so" Jane looked at me for a moment, then spoke, her voice quiet.

"I just don't know what I'm changing into"

"You are adapting to changed circumstances" I smiled, happy to disabuse her of any misplaced notions of inadequacy. "For example, since we have become more than friends, our lives have changed, very much for the better in my opinion. We are happier and healthier for it, our diet has become far more healthier than it otherwise might, our health regime has improved through a more intensive exercise program, both of us enjoy far more regular cardio-vascular workouts" I smiled up at Jane through my eyelashes a little coyly, seeing her pick up on my meaning almost instantly as the wicked smile she suddenly sported attested. "I see a vast array of positive changes that we have undergone over the last year" Jane nodded then spoke; her smile fading as she did.

"I'm not complaining about them, besides, I'm the one that's changed, you haven't, not really" I shook my head, needing to correct her misconception.

"We have changed each other Jane. You are less of the tomboy you once were, more than feminine when the need arises, but you are no less of the 'bad ass' detective you were when I first met you" I leaned down to carefully place my now empty cup on the floor, before sitting up again and looking at her. "I too have changed. I am not the person I once was. Once I hid behind clothes and manners and a formal politeness to distance myself from others" I shifted slightly on the bed then continued. "Interactions with other people were on my terms, limited to better keep them safely at arms length. The person I once was would have never even contemplated some of the exploits we have undertaken, particularly since we arrived in Los Angeles" Seeing her eyebrow lift in question I paused for a moment, gathering my thoughts then continuing on. "I speak for example of the new courses now undertaken at the Academy to better train recruits in the appropriate techniques when responding to crime scenes to avoid evidence contamination" Jane shook her head once as she spoke.

"That's not true Maur, back in Boston you gave the induction briefings to new detectives when they started so you can deliver a lecture to recruits, no problem" I nodded once, acknowledging her comment then continued.

"Yes, the person I once was could have delivered the course, concentrating on the facts and my experience to get through each class, but to actually create and submit a brief to Chief Pope, put together the funding requests and argue their necessity before the expenditure review committee, then convince the faculty at the Academy of its worth, compile the training syllabus and then deliver it to students; that I could never have done" I looked up and gazed into her attentive gaze, happily losing myself for a moment in her warm brown eyes, before continuing. "You have changed me Jane, the same way I have changed you. It is as natural as it is inevitable. Just as the act of observation changes the behaviour of the event being observed, so the interaction between us has slowly but surely changed each of us, for the better I believe" Jane frowned for a moment as she considered my words.

"You reckon?" I nodded once, eager to have her see the truth.

"I am sure of it. I am more outgoing, more confident and more relaxed in my dealings with others, even complete strangers" I paused for a moment then pressed on. "The Maura Isles of old was fearful of her interactions with others, my dealings with strangers were filled with terror as I tried to hide behind polite conventions, cool courtesy and professional titles, afraid that they would judge me and find me wanting. Now however I am far more confident with others, a change that I have you to thank for" I smiled at her. "Just one of so many things that I am thankful to you for" She returned my smile instinctively.

"I didn't do anything Maura, you were always that person; you just needed the encouragement to spread your wings" She shrugged. "That could have been anyone, you just needed the support"

"I would disagree with your assessment Jane, without you I would not have moved here to Los Angeles. Without your support I would not have made the wonderful friends we now have, nor contemplated some of our exploits we have undertaken" I smiled suddenly. "I would have never stepped out in some of the clothes we have here, for example to Club Nights at the Intersection, nor undertaken some of those post-party activities without your love, support and encouragement" Jane looked up.

"Hey, the same applies to me too. I sure as hell wouldn't have done some of that stuff before we got together and came out here" She paused, her face thoughtful then pushed on. "Hell, none of it actually" I nodded agreeably as I spoke.

"So we have both changed, in large part due to each other's support and the support of our friends. The fact that you can look stunning in latex and leather when out with friends for a night of fun in no way detracts from the person you are when working" I smiled reassuringly. "Your confidence has always been one of your defining traits Jane. The confidence to be a beautiful, sexy woman with our friends or the confidence to face the challenges of your role with Major Crimes and deliver justice on behalf of the victims"

"You think?" I could sense the doubt that underlay her words.

"I am certain of it Jane, your confidence is an integral part of you" I paused and smiled a little coyly through my lashes. "A part I find very, very attractive" I could see the moment Jane's demeanour changed, the darkening of her eyes. She leaned forward, her voice lowering.

"You know what parts of of you I find attractive" I carefully shook my head, keeping my eyes locked on hers as she leaned forward, her voice soft and full of need. "All of you"

In an instant she had pounced, grabbing me and rolling us across the bed as Jo leapt out of the way, barking excitedly. Jane's mouth descended on mine as her hands slid inside my dressing gown, palming my breasts and sending a shiver of need through me. She leaned back for a moment smiling down at me, before I suddenly levered myself off the bed with my arm and leg, flipping her and coming to rest straddling her. I was under no illusions about my capabilities though, aware that she had willingly let me take the dominant position; I looked down at her under me and something possessive took hold as I spoke, my voice low and certain.

"Mine" Jane's eyes darkened even further as she took me in, looming above her. Revelling in my ability to arouse this beautiful woman I shrugged my gown off my shoulders as her eyes widened in appreciation even as she spoke, low and soft.

"Yours" I leaned forward and captured her mouth, feeling the love I have for her fill me once again.

We didn't get out of bed for several more, very well spent hours.


	92. Chapter 92

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**92 A different kind of pool party**

Andrea's viewpoint

As we walked up to the front door of Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli's very nice house in Westwood I have to confess that I was feeling a little anxious; while I'd interacted with most of them through work and once or twice at O'Malley's after a case, this was the first time we'd been invited to a social occasion at their home.

Worse it was a pool party, something that had sent my anxieties about my body image into overdrive, hardly surprising given everyone who was going to be there; in addition to us, Brenda and Sharon and Natalie Deering and her partner Anastasia Romanov were also on the invite list. I was going to be expected to wander around in a swim suit in front of half a dozen beautiful women, several of whom could probably model swimwear for a living, making me seriously freak out.

Mikki hadn't understood my anxiety at first, given her looks and body she'd fit in perfectly, but to her credit once she'd realised just how serious I was about it she'd been nothing but supportive, going out of her way then and ever since to tell me just how good I looked, how much she appreciated my body, how good it was; everything I needed to hear as the days counted down to the weekend.

Now though we were standing in front of their door and my stomach was a bundle of nerves while I didn't know what to do to calm it down, I knew none of them would be as horribly crass as to say anything, but my normally well-hidden sense of inadequacy was getting the better of me. I'd even gone shopping, looking for a more flattering swimsuit, something that hid more of the fact that my body was well past forty and no longer as taunt and trim as I'd wish, the result of too many late nights at work and eating too much comfort food instead of hitting the gym. I'd ended up in a black one piece with some fabric around the hips that flattered my silhoutte but I was still fretting despite Mikki's assurances. Mind you, she had nothing to worry about, she was wearing a bikini that hid nothing and flaunted her athletic curves, something I usually appreciated but right now was almost too nervous to think about.

We rang the bell and were shortly thereafter rewarded with some hi-pitched barking from behind the door, followed up by Jane Rizzoli's distinctive voice telling 'Jo' to behave. The door opened to reveal Jane standing there in a simple red 'Baywatch'-style one-piece that seemed the opposite of mine, where mine was designed to conceal and flatter, hers seemed designed to emphasise her tight, slim figure and long, strong legs. The smile that lit up her face was unforced and welcoming though.

"Hey, come on in, it's too hot out there" We nodded and greeted her before making our way in as a little terrier ran around us happily energetic, drawing a resigned look from Jane. "That's Jo, she goes a little berserk with strangers, hoping you've got food probably" I smiled at the little dog, its tail wagging ferociously as Jane closed the door and stepped past us, leading us through their house while their dog trotted happily along behind us as I tried not to linger on the fact that Jane was gorgeous, something that her bare, well-muscled back and the lycra that clung tightly across her well-defined ass only emphasised.

The house's decor was modern American with Scandinavian elements, lots of light wood throughout, cathedral ceilings with skylights letting in plenty of sunlight which lit up the polished wooden floors and the mostly new-looking wooden furniture which had obviously been acquired with an eye to enhance the overall decor, all bright and cheerful and light and much appearing to be both handmade and high quality. As we passed through the lounge room Mikki glanced my way and raised an eyebrow, commenting without words on what was evidently a large and very expensive house, tastefully and likely expensively furnished.

We were led into a large and very well-equipped kitchen to find Sharon Raydor standing there in a conservatively-cut dark-blue bikini, in the process of tossing a salad as she looked up with a smile and a greeting.

"Hi Andrea, Mikki, glad you could make it" I smiled, partly at the welcome and partly at the slight softness of Sharon's belly, it wasn't a taunt six-pack thank god; Sharon was human like the rest of us. I also took in the colourful salad on the bench in front of her and asked the obvious question.

"Hi Sharon, what's with the salad, it sure looks healthy?" She smiled a little wider.

"It's a chicken, avocado, spinach, egg and rocket salad that Ana made last time, everyone liked it so I said I'd give it a try this time, see if I could improve on hers" Mikki nodded and spoke up, she may not be a great cook but by god she could put it away, sometimes I think she has hollow legs, so anything involving food was of immediate interest to her.

"So what did you change?" Sharon shrugged.

"I thought I'd add some pine nuts and red, green and yellow peppers to give it a bit of a bite" Mikki nodded then asked the question, a little hopefully.

"Any chilies?" I smiled; my chica loves hot food, the hotter the better, unfortunately for her Sharon shook her head.

"No, not this time, though that's not a bad idea, I might consider it for next time" I nodded as Mikki lifted the cooler we'd brought onto the end of the bench; it had two carafe's of home-made Sangria and two bottles of Tequila we'd brought as our contribution; and looked around, seeing Jane had headed back outside and was fiddling with a huge gas-powered grill so big it incorporated a sink and bench space, one of those outdoor entertainment thingies you see in the home improvement catalogues. It was under a large cabana providing shelter from the elements for the grill and an outdoor setting, located halfway to a large and very inviting pool. Not seeing anyone else out there I asked the question.

"Where's everyone else?" Sharon nodded with her head to one side.

"Maura and Brenda are in the wine cellar arguing about reds..." Mikki and I both leaned over the bench to see a trapdoor in the polished wooden floor, normally sitting flush it now stood open, revealing a set of steps heading down. "...while Ana and Nat should be here soon" I nodded.

"I might head down and say hi" Turning I glanced at Mikki. "Back in a minute" She nodded and spoke.

"I think I'll go see what Jane's doing, that's a wicked griller they've got out there" With a shake of my head and a smile from both Sharon and I Mikki headed outside as I made my way around the bench, seeing an array of salads on the sideboards, plus what looked like a large amount of lamb and beef steaks sitting in glass bowls half-submerged in whatever they'd been marinated in.

"That's a serious amount of food there Sharon, how many are you expecting?"

"Just the eight of us, but both Jane and Ana eat vast quantities to sustain their fitness and energy levels" At my questioning look she smiled. "They both do a lot of gym work and martial arts training" I nodded, that would help explain the flat stomach Jane Rizzoli was sporting under that swimsuit, plus the definition easily visible in her arms, shoulders and legs. Thinking about it I nodded and spoke.

"Jane looks good, maybe I should get Mikki on the same training regimen"

"Good luck with that" At my surprised look she clarified her statement. "They train almost every day, thirty to forty minutes in the gym, mostly various weights and stretching exercises, then about the same time doing full-contact sparring" I nodded slowly as I thought about that for a second, given the life of a homicide detective, that was a serious commitment of time out of their day. I said the same to Sharon and she smiled as she replied.

"They've had a few opportunities to put all that hard work into use, plus both Nat and Maura really appreciate the benefits" She winked at me and I smiled, knowing exactly what she meant. I cast my eye out over the pair of them out next to the griller and thought about it; Mikki was standing alongside Jane in cut off jeans and a tee, they looked similar, both slender with olive skin and long curly manes of dark hair cascading down their backs but even so I could see the differences, Mikki was slim and in good condition but Jane was lean and hardened, one was fit and healthy, the other was superfit. I pursed my lips for a moment, it was obvious that Jane took her training very seriously, I wasn't sure that Mikki was prepared to commit to that level of time and training. On the other hand anything that improved her chances of coming home to me safe and sound was probably a good thing. I resolved to talk to her about it later before turning back to Sharon.

"I might head down and see if I can hurry them up" Sharon gave me an off-kilter smile then spoke, a little ruefully as she finished tossing the salad.

"Good luck with that, they can argue wine, particularly reds, for hours" With a smile and a nod I walked round the island bench and made my way down the stairs, appreciating the handrail as I did, my sandals clonking on the wooden stairs as I descended into a really large, brightly-lit wine cellar, dug out to probably forty feet a side with concrete walls, it was filled with wine bottles. Each wall was lined with floor to ceiling racks with several rows of low racks dividing the room into aisles, there must have been several thousand bottles of wine down here as I noted the room was a nice cool temperature, perfect for preserving vintage wine; quite obviously this was a room for people for whom quality wine was a serious business. Maura and Brenda, both casually dressed, looked up as I descended; smiling as they welcomed me, I made my way over to find them standing in front of one wall, apparently all red wines.

"Hi Maura, Brenda" I got hugs and kisses from both; apparently they felt that their inhibitions were best left at work, before I spoke up. "I'm told you're arguing about wine?" Brenda was quickest.

"We're not arguing, just having a spirited debate is all" Maura threw her a fond smile.

"Brenda seems to believe that red wine starts and ends with Merlot" Brenda quickly demurred.

"That's not true, some of those clarets are real nice, 'specially that French one you brought to dinner a few weeks back, that was real nice, plus I like Burgundy's too" Maura nodded slowly.

"I know you're partial to heavy reds, but you really should try a lighter one" She indicated a section of the wall before withdrawing a bottle. "This is a delightfully full-bodied sparkling dry Shiraz from South Australia, I believe you should consider this one" Intreagued I reached out a hand and smiled as Maura handed it over, reading the label then looking up and speaking.

"I don't know much about Australian wines" Maura smiled at me.

"Some of their wines are quite delightful, as are some of the whites in particular from New Zealand; we are fortunate to have a really excellent wine importer here in Los Angeles who brings in good quality wines from around the world" I nodded as I handed the bottle back.

"The last batch of wine we bought was when Mikki and I did a tour of some of the Northern Californian wineries, we did the cellar door circuit one weekend and picked up some nice ones from various wineries" Brenda nodded as Maura returned the bottle to its niche.

"There's a couple of wineries that Sharon likes, we do the run up to there from time to time to stock up" Maura looked up, nodding agreeably then chimed in when Brenda stopped.

"We too have visited some of the local wineries, the average ones are distinctly average, but the best of the local wines are sublime" She looked at me and smiled. "Would you like a white or red Andrea?"

"It's pretty warm outside, so I think a white rather than a red, unless you think I should have a red with lunch?" She shook her head.

"No, whatever you prefer, Jane will of course drink beer and Ana might do so as well out of solidarity" She paused then glanced at me. "Does Mikki have a preference?" I smiled as I replied.

"Beer is good, wine is good, but she loves her tequila, plus Kahlúa Especial as the basis for cocktails" Brenda smiled and chimed in.

"The Especial is nice, but it surely has a kick" I knew what she meant, Mikki had got me completely smashed on it not long after we got together on our first dirty weekend away, I could still remember how smoothly they'd gone down, how my inhibitions had gone down with them and how horrible the hangover had felt the following morning. Not helped by Mikki wandering around barely affected, she'd had years to get used to it. Maura meanwhile had pulled out two bottles of white and turned to me, holding them out as she did.

"Andrea, could I please ask you to take these upstairs and have them placed in the wine refrigerator?" There are several bottles already chilled in there so please help yourself…" She smiled happily. "Sharon knows where the glasses are" I nodded as she passed them across then headed back up stairs while they returned to their 'spirited debate' about reds, making me smile as I did.

A couple of minutes later, spent pleasurably exchanging office gossip with Sharon, the doorbell rang and Sharon headed out to answer up it, returning shortly thereafter with Anastasia and Natalie in tow. Both were wearing jeans and loose white tops, hair in pony tails, looking young and fresh and happy, I have to say it was nice to see their smiles widen as they spotted me. Ana was marginally faster than Nat.

"Andrea, good to see you"

"Hi Andrea, it's great you could come" I was pulled into a hug by Natalie, receiving a kiss on the cheek before Ana walked past, an arm full of heavy-laden bags, giving me a kiss on the cheek _En passant_ as she headed to the island bench to unload. Seconds later she was unloading several containers of salads and other dishes, further adding to the array of food available.

I felt a little guilty that we hadn't brought anything beside home-made Sangria and tequila; I'd been told that Ana, Sharon and Maura were all apparently great in the kitchen, whipping up gourmet meals at the drop of a hat. Me on the other hand, I can cook but I'm not great at it, neither is Mikki for that matter, we both have a couple or signature dishes we do but it's more comfort food like my lamb roast with baked vegies or an apple pie with hand-whipped cream, both of which my mom had taught me as a girl. In Mikki's case it was a selection of half a dozen meals her mother had taught her and her sisters as they grew up. None of them were really appropriate for bringing to a meal like this I thought, even as I watched as Ana started opening a bewildering array of salads and other things that looked mouthwatering, unlike my salads, which mostly look like boring salad. Ana finished unloading and looked around, then spoke up.

"Where is everyone?" Sharon tipped her head to the side.

"Brenda and Maura still haven't surfaced, they were discussing wine downstairs" I smiled as I chipped in.

"Arguing more like it" Nat rolled her eyes then smiled and spoke up.

"That sounds like a job for you Tsarina, I'm going to say hi to the other" She got a smile from Ana as she walked over to the steps down into the floor.

"I'll get them out of there" With that she disappeared from view as I turned to see Natalie smiling, then turning to wander outside, casually walking over to Mikki and Jane, giving them both a hug and a kiss before walking over to a lounge and casually stripping off her jeans and blouse, revealing a mouth-watering body encased in a barely-there white bikini that hid nothing of her figure, I smiled to myself as I noticed Mikki trying not to be too obvious in noticing, Jane was unconcerned, she obviously got used to Natalie who seemed to have no body modesty whatsoever, on the other hand she had a body that didn't need it, none of them did really.

Seconds later there was a splash as Nat dived into the water, emerging at the far end then levering herself up and out to sit on the edge, pushing the wet hair back from her face and calling out to Jo who came running over for a pat, quickly she rolled on her back to allow Nat to rub her belly as I smiled at the domestic scene. I looked back up to see Sharon smiling slightly at the sight, her eyes catching mine.

"If you want to head out, I'll be heading for the pool as soon as I've finished with this" I nodded and smiled.

"I might do that, it's pretty warm" It was, the day had dawned fine and warm, the clear sky ensuring it would get hotter as the day wore on. I nodded and retrieved two towels from my bag and headed outside, detouring via Mikki, holding one out to her

"Here Chica" She took it with a smile and followed Natalie's lead, stripping off the shorts and tee, revealing an unexpected surprise, she was wearing the sexy little yellow bikini I'd bought her a few months ago, it almost glowed against her warm skin. Mikki tossed me a cheeky little grin, knowing she'd surprised me with it before diving into the pool; I associated that suit with one of our first dirty weekends away, she'd worn it to the pool in our hotel and got the whole place staring, before turning to me and giving me a long, deep, possessive kiss that had left me humming long after we'd ended it, a promise that she'd followed up on that night. Turning away from that arousing memory I looked to where Jane was standing at the griller, making sure it was clean and ready for the meat.

"Do you do much of the cooking Jane?" She smiled at me as she shook her head.

"Some, mostly Italian that my ma passed on to me, Maura's the cook in our house" She shrugged. "At least I'm trusted enough to grill things without too much supervision"

I looked up as movement caught the corner of my eye to see Ana had emerged from the house and was stripping out of her jeans, then pulling her top off revealing a body that was a combination of lush curves and tight muscle wrapped in a black one-piece swimsuit, the ass was taunt but her tits...they were made to drool over, something her suit didn't do much to hide. I know Mikki loves my tits, god knows she spends enough time on them, but Ana's were something straight out of a porn movie, I could see the attraction right there, hell I liked them and I was more a leg and ass girl myself.

Obviously her mission into the celler had been a success as a few moments later Maura walked out, she'd lost her outer clothes and was wearing a strange kind of one piece, two piece thing; it was a separate top and bottom connected by a narrow strip of Lycra on each side and at the front and back, the whole thing an aqua that showed off her gorgeous assets to best advantage, I'd known she had a spectacular figure, something her normal work dress left no doubt about but this... Wow.

Maura was followed out by Brenda, wearing a green and gold bikini that highlighted the fact that for a woman a year older than me she was in much better shape, all in all I was acutely feeling the fact that I was in the worst shape of any of them, something that I immediately decided I had to do something about. She and Sharon were chatting about something before they placed their wine glasses down on the table and walked over to the pool, happily jumping in with a huge splash that left Natalie drenched and spluttering and them surfacing amid laughter from Mikki and Ana.

I smiled and stepped down into the water, shivering slightly at the sudden temperature change as I moved into the centre of the pool, looking around for Mikki. I didn't see her which should have tipped me off before a strong pair of arms suddenly wrapped around my thighs from behind as I was abruptly lifted out of the water and spun round before Mikki fell backwards, dumping me into the water. I came up spluttering and looked round, seeing her through narrowed eyes as she started backing away.

"Easy mi amor, it was all in good fun..." I started walking towards her as she started to back away.

"Oh I'll have fun alright" I started moving faster as she turned to slow run in the water, before she could get far Jane dived in and slid through the water, both arms wrapping round Mikki's ankles and causing her to stumble, perfect for me to get to her and leap on top of her shoulders as she stood up, catching her off balance and driving her back under amidst shrieks and laughter.

Lunch was mouth-wateringly good, the marinated lamb and beef steaks were individually small but made up for their size with their flavour, I had to stop myself moaning as I bit into the first mouthful, Mikki wasn't so restrained; her very vocal appreciation easily heard, bringing smiles to faces round the table before she spoke up.

"Hijole, this meat is amazing" She licked her lips, a little ostentatiously then spoke. "What's in it?" Maura smiled.

"The lamb marinade is made up of red wine, basil, garlic and oregano, with black pepper and extra virgin olive oil" Maura smiled a little wider. "While the ingredients are good, the meat has been left to marinade for 24 hours, which ensures the flavour infuses throughout the meat" Sharon waited until Maura had finished then chipped in.

"The beef's been steeped in a marinade of soy sauce, red chilies, crushed garlic, grated fresh ginger and five spice sauce, like Maura I like to let them sit in the fridge for 24 hours before cooking, the rest is then in the cooking" I nodded even as I saw Mikki looking over at me pleadingly, I could see what she wanted easily, making me smile a little before speaking up.

"Given how amazing this is and in the interests of keeping Mikki happy, could I get the recipe's off you please" They both smiled and nodded as Mikki grinned happily, no doubt already anticipating meals to come.

We applied ourselves to lunch, it was too good not to as we chatted about all sorts of inconsequential things over lunch and into a dessert of homemade fresh fruit salad and hand-whipped cream, both light and filling all at once. With that done glasses were refreshed and Natalie looked my way and turned our attention to the case.

"What's the latest Andrea?" I smiled, seeing everyone's attention sharpen up.

"Well, based on what we've got from Joan Hammond and Tony Osmond, plus the surveillance footage we have enough to put them away for good" There were satisfied smiles all around the table at that piece of good news. Jane was the first to speak up.

"That's good to hear, I was kinda worried Farrar and Humphries might have skated through given they weren't caught on tape agreeing to the Cartel coming after us" I shook my head, happy to relieve her concerns.

"No, Osmond implicated Farrar in the kidnapping and given he was apparently there when they handed her over to Hernandez we should get corroboration from him in due course" Brenda frowned.

"If the Feds ever let us near him that is" Ana glanced her way and spoke up.

"Hey, I'm pushing for that as hard as I can, it's just that he has enough top shelf intel on the activities of Sinaloa that there's a conga line of federal government agencies lined up to interrogate him" She pulled a face then continued. "I do regularly remind his minders that the reason we have Hernandez in the first place is because of the LAPD..." She shrugged. "I keep banging away, though some people claim I'm only push because I have a vested interest"

"Idiots" It was Jane seconded by Mikki.

"Totally" I smiled and turned us away from what was likely to be an extended Fed-bashing exercise.

"Humphries, well she's not talking and Osmond didn't have much on what she was doing, but we do have her for the ambush on you, as well as the murder of those two women" Jane nodded.

"Yeah, the evidence on that's pretty airtight" I smiled in agreement, the GPS records of the movements of the locator in the case with the money, together with hidden surveillence camera footage of Humphries buying it at a tech shop, plus having it found in her car with her prints on the handle was about as conclusive as I could ask for.

"Exactly, the defence is going to find it hard to poke holes in that, plus the witness testimony of her passing the case to the Barrio Boys is very good" There were nods around the table at that, before Sharon spoke up.

"Any idea when the trial is?" I frowned, I'd asked the same question two days ago and not got a decent answer.

"I'm not sure, probably a couple of months before it even looks like reaching court" I shrugged. "They can take as much time as they like, it won't do them any good, based on the evidence, we should have a pretty open and shut case" I glanced at Anastasia. "Particularly if Hernandez' testimony is as good as you say it is" Ana nodded quickly, happy to reassure everyone.

"Oh yeah, the info we've got off him so far is damned good. He was middle management level with the cartel, not making the big decisions but working closely with those who did, so he got to see lots of what the cartel did and did a lot of conveying of information back and forward throughout the Cartel's operations. Best of all he was the contact person between the cartel and Kennedy so he knows what they did and when they did it" I nodded slowly, adding that to what I'd already seen, Hernandez' testimony could be the final nail in the coffin for Kennedy and the others.

"That will be good, I'll need to sit down and talk with you once you get him to talk about our suspects, get a feel for what he does have"

"You will be Andrea?" It was Maura. "Have you been selected to prosecute the case?" I smiled and tipped my head.

"Yep, my boss called me in and told me given I was LAPD liaison and was close to the case having been involved before, I was the natural choice" There was a sudden outbreak of smiles and congratulations from everyone, they were happy to have me handling the case, given how important it was to them it was all a little humbling and just reinforced my determination to see the job through. We chatted about the case for a while before Brenda decisively changed the subject.

"Enough of that, let's talk about something more important, I speak of course of Commander Russell Taylor" Natalie groaned.

"Must we, the day was so nice up till now" Mikki nodded in support.

"Yeah, far too nice to deal with that asshole" Ana shook her head.

"I really enjoyed lunch, you go and bring him up and now I feel nauseus" Brenda was unfazed.

"The Commander has crossed the line a few too many times of late, his threats to Maura, Natalie and Sharon aren't even his most recent outrages" Surprised, I leaned forward.

"Has he threatened someone else" Brenda and Sharon both nodded as Brenda continued.

"Yes, apparently he was down in the armory getting some mandatory pistol time in..."

"Trying to get his scores up to something satisfactory" It was Sharon interrupting, her words drawing eye rolls from Jane, Ana and Brenda, all of whom took their pistol skills very seriously, or so I'd been told by Mikki. Brenda shook her head then continued.

"We all know his opinions of female officers, so his ego didn't take it to well when he found himself in the next lane to a young female patrol officer, Savannah Robinson" Jane made an 'oh' sound then followed up.

"I've seen her shoot, she's better than good, put a pistol in her hand and she's a terminator" Maura turned to look at her in surprise.

"Better than you darling?" Jane nodded.

"I'm good, very good..." She wasn't boasting, just stating a fact. "...but Robinson, she's a freak, way better than me" She shrugged and looked round the table. "She could give Deadshot a run for his money" I got the reference and nodded, that was a hell of a comparison; Brenda also nodding as Sharon took up the thread again.

"Apparently Taylor's ego didn't take the comparison with her shooting at all well, it made him look inept at best and incompetent at worst"

"Because he is, incompetent I mean" It was Nat, adding... "At pretty much everything" Mikki nodded alongside me and chipped in.

"No arguments from me there" There was a mutter of agreement around the table as Sharon continued.

"He apparently got very unpleasant, as only he can, to the point that Savannah was quite upset, Taylor was quite explicit about what exactly women in general and Savannah in particular was good for" There were frowns around the table as she finished. "Savannah is quite attractive, so you can gather exactly what he was saying" I took in the expressions around the group and shook my head as Maura spoke.

"Can nothing be done about Commander Taylor, his appalling towards female members of the LAPD attitude is nothing if not consistent" Ana frowned darkly and spoke.

"Consistently disgusting you mean, the man's a disgrace" As several people nodded Natalie spoke up.

"Was there a complaint made?" Brenda shook her head.

"Not by Savannah, I mean a beat officer complaining about a Commander, she probably didn't want the accompanying grief and possible future harassment" I grimaced, noting I wasn't the only one doing so; there was always those issues with harassment cases inside an organisation; even if the complainent won sometimes they paid a penalty in other ways. Brenda meanwhile had seen the angry expressions and pushed on.

"The head armourer, Lieutenant O'Farrell, he eventually stepped in, tossed Taylor out and reported it to Candace Morrell, she in turn called Taylor in but he made it clear he didn't care" I frowned.

"Surely complaints against him for sexual harassment will count against him?" I looked around the group. "Isn't he worried about his career?" Sharon looked tired for a moment then spoke.

"He knows that Pope's concerned about a backlash against him from the Police union, Taylor's tight with the union leadership, one of the senior people used to be his partner, another is a drinking buddy" Mikki shook her head, her voice disgusted.

"My union dues at work" Natalie took up the story.

"Pope won't move against Taylor without a reason good enough to stand up against the union leadership and against the Mayor's office" Jane looked aghast as she spoke.

"What's the Mayor's office doing protecting Taylor?" Nat shook her head quickly.

"They're not protecting him, it's just that the Mayor doesn't want a fight between the department and the union, he thinks it'll undermine his law and order credentials with the voters" Ana snorted.

"Politicians" I nodded, working for the DA I saw more of the political side of it than I'd like, then chipped in.

"They are what they are" Maura shook her head then spoke, her voice carrying a tinge of anger.

"But to turn a blond eye to harassment, that is unconscionable" Jane and Mikki nodded as Sharon spoke.

"That's politics for you and Pope is a politician through and through"

"That sucks" Jane's voice was a disgusted growl. "I hate politicians, can't trust them" Brenda nodded as she replied, her voice dry.

"When a dog urinates on a fire hydrant it's not being a vandal, it's just being a dog" I nodded and followed up.

"Exactly, and we can't expect them to do the right thing, it's not in their nature or their interest, as they see it" Ana looked around the table then spoke.

"So Pope's going to continue to let it slide?" Sharon nodded.

"Oh he'll call him in and warn him but they both know Pope won't fire him" Nat nodded as Mikki spoke.

"So nothing will change" Brenda leaned forward.

"Not if we have to rely on Will Pope and the system..." We all turned to look at her, waiting. Finally Jane spoke, just beating Mikki.

"And our options are...?"

"So what's the alternative?" Brenda smiled nastily.

"I believe that if we wait for the system to deal with the good Commander, we will be waiting a long time for justice" Ana nodded.

"I'm not prepared to wait until either Taylor retires or Pope's replaced by someone with a backbone" Mikki jumped in.

"Me neither" Maura seconded that.

"I too find the ongoing situation to be intolerable"

"As do I" It was Natalie. "He cannot be allowed to continue on like this" Jane looked over at Brenda and shrugged.

"It's pretty much unanimous that Taylor needs to be dealt with" Ana spoke up in support.

"And Pope's not up to the job so what do you suggest?" Brenda looked to Sharon and they shared a smile before she looked back at us.

"I suggest we take matters onto our own hands" An hour later we had the bones of a plan to deal with Taylor, it just needed fleshing out. In the meantime the heat had got to us and we'd all ended up in the pool for a bit before a welcome cooling breeze had arrived, dropping the temperatures to something a little less scorching. I was happily lying on my side on a lounger, feeling the sun warm on my back, when Mikki's voice came to me from over my shoulder.

"Comfy there Mi Amor?" I nodded slowly, the sun making me languid.

"Very comfy" I felt the lounger move slightly before a familiar shape settled against me, replacing the sun's rays with her damp skin against my back, though I knew she'd soon dry off; she was hot-blooded, in every sense of the word. Didn't mean I wasn't going to tease her though. "Do you mind Chica, I was comfortable here, plus you're blocking my sun" Her voice was close to my ear even as scattered drops of water dripped onto my neck.

"Aw, poor baby, I'm sure I can get you all hot again" I shook my head even as she settled behind me and an arm snaked over and around my waist as fingers gently teased my tummy through the Lycra before starting to move higher, drawing a low warning from me.

"Not in public Chica" I could feel her shrug before she spoke.

"Not like anyone would notice anyway" Glancing round I nodded slowly, Brenda and Sharon were sitting side by side on the pools steps, submerged from the waist down, both had their eyes closed as they rested, Brenda's head on Sharon's shoulder and her head resting on the blonde's, hands clasped together, contentment visible in every line. Jane was dozing on another lounger, Maura wrapped comfortably in her arms with her eyes closed while Nat and Ana were drifting idly around the pool on individual inflatable matresses, held together by their entwined fingers, both had their eyes closed but were obviously completely relaxed.

"Maybe not" I smiled as I took in the two youngest as they drifted in the breeze, they looked as happy as they were beautiful. Mind you, the same could be said for everyone here, I'm an equal opportunity ogler and there was plenty here to ogle, all of the women around us looked great, well worth a second look and I'd already confessed to Mikki that while I was happily and completely satisfied as her lover, if I didn't have her, than any of the 'four musketeers', as I'd nicknamed both couples, would be a delightful alternative. She'd just mock-scowled at me for a moment, before shrugging, letting a smile out and telling me that she understood where I was coming from, then explaining that she liked her lovers classy, stylish and gorgeous, so if I wasn't available, just for the sake of argument, then Maura Isles pushed all of the same buttons I did.

I'd just laughed, not jealous at all, Maura after all was stunning but I'd appreciated the subtext and had rewarded her for the compliment over the next few hours. After all, keeping Mikki satisfied wasn't only entirely pleasurable fun, it kept her from looking too closely at Maura, given Jane and Mikki shared similar temperaments, I doubt that'd end well for anyone.

I drifted off with Mikki's warmth against my back and her fingers laced with mine as I smiled at the sense of love and protection I felt in her embrace, I was very, very lucky to have her.

An hour and a half later we'd finished cleaning up the kitchen, sorted everyone's containers out and were preparing to head home, we'd said our goodbyes to Sharon and Brenda who'd left a few minutes earlier and were at the door with Jane and Maura, who was smiling as she spoke.

"It was wonderful having you both over" Jane smiled too.

"Yeah, thanks for coming"

"Yeah, it was really great" Mikki looked to me and smiled, then continued. "We had fun" I nodded and looked to our hosts.

"It was lovely, thank you for inviting us, it's good to see everyone away from work" Maura nodded, giving us both a lovely smile.

"Indeed it was" She looked up at Jane and they did some kind of communicate without words thing for a moment, getting a tiny nod from Jane before she looked back. "We do this quite regularly, so we'd love to have you over again, if you would like to of course" That was Maura, the woman was politeness personified. I smiled and looked up at Mikki, seeing the look in her eye and nodded as I looked back to Maura.

"We'd love to" Jane nodded and spoke.

"Then it's settled" She grinned at Mikki. "Keep bringing that Sangria with you and you're more than welcome" Mikki's retort was instant.

"Given how you were guzzling it, I'd better make a bigger batch next time" Unfazed, Jane just grinned.

"Deal"

We made our goodbyes, getting a hug from Maura and a wave from Jane who didn't really seem the hugging kind, before we made our way back to her car. Settling in we headed off when Mikki looked at me and smiled.

"See, that was cool, you looked like you had a good time" I smiled and nodded as I replied.

"I did" Her smile widened to a grin as she spoke.

"So all that worrying was for nothing, about how you looked I mean" I shrugged, I'd still felt self conscious though.

"Easy for you to say, I still felt fat" She shook her head though she kept her eyes on the road.

"You aren't" I looked over to her behind the wheel as I spoke.

"You're my girlfriend chica, you're expected to say that" I didn't miss the soft glance she gave me.

"Well it's true" I smiled as I replied.

"I don't believe that for a moment..." I scoffed. "...but thank you"

"You're welcome" It was quiet for a few minutes before we pulled up at a set of lights, waiting for them to change I turned in my seat and looked at her.

"Mikki, do you know a good gym?" She turned to look at me for a moment.

"Why?" I shrugged.

"I want to get fitter" Mikki shook her head at me.

"Is this because of today? I told you, you don't have to get all stressed about this, I love you just the way you are" I smiled as the lights changed and we moved off.

"Thank you chica, but seeing Brenda and Sharon, they're both older than me and in better shape" I frowned. "I want to be more like them" Mikki wasn't having a bar of it.

"I don't need you to be more like them, I want you to be more like you" I smiled at her vehrmance.

"Chica, you know that makes no sense right?" She threw me a glance as she replied.

"Don't care, you know what I mean"

"I do and thank you" I smiled then continued. "I still need to do a lot more exercise" Her smile was quick and a little wicked.

"We could start when we get home, I could think if a couple of workouts we could do, they're real good for the circulation, y'know, lots of cardio" I just looked at her and chuckled, I knew exactly what she was suggesting.

"The sooner we get home the sooner we start" My smile widened as the car sped up, causing me to caution her. "Getting busted for speeding would really kill the mood Chica"

The pout on her lips made me laugh but she got the message, her foot easing off the gas. I didn't mind, we had all the time in the world.

**Authors Note:**

I love to cook and both marinade recipes are from my own collection.

The Lamb recipe is:

Combine 1 cup red wine, ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 cloves chopped garlic, 2 teaspoons dry oregano, 2 teaspoons dry basil and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Put it and the meat in a zip lock bag, massage the meat in the bag for a few minutes to allow the marinade to settle in the flesh, then marinate at room temperature for 2 hours or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.

About 1 cup of marinade (10–16 tablespoons) is enough for 2 pounds of meat.

Grill on a hot plate, it's best to sear your meat quickly on both sides to start. After this don't flip it too often as this will dry your food out. Normally I flip it only once and avoid pricking the meat to keep juices in, cook to your taste, enough so that if you press in gently with tongs the meat still has give in it, don't let it overcook as lamb is best when succulent and juicy.

The Beef recipe is:

80ml (1/3 cup) dark soy sauce, 1 large fresh red chili, deseeded, thinly sliced, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 2 teaspoons of grated fresh ginger and 1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice. Marinade as per the lamb in a bag for 24 hours.

Preheat the barbecue grill on medium-high and brush both sides of the steak with olive oil to prevent it from sticking to the barbecue. This is better than brushing the barbecue as it prevents the oil from burning which taints the meat.

Cook the steak on the barbecue until it's cooked to your liking. Cooking times vary depending on the thickness. Turn your steak once only during cooking, any more and the juices escape, which can make the meat tough.

After cooking, transfer the steak to a plate and cover with foil. Set aside for 5 minutes to rest. Heat pushes the juices to the centre of the steak. Resting it after cooking allows the meat to relax, and the juices then distribute evenly throughout the steak, making it succulent and tender.


	93. Chapter 93

As always, the characters here are the creation and property of their respective rights holders, and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us. To them we owe a vast debt of gratitude for the pleasure they bring us. No infringement of their creator's rights is intended, but thank you for letting us play with them, just for a little while.

Like the Klingon's say, revenge is a dish best served cold...

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**93 Getting even**

**Candace**

It was early morning and I was sitting in Commander Taylor's office, trying not too hard to savour the moment as I delivered the bad news, happily playing my part in our carefully orchestrated campaign to deliver Taylor some well-deserved payback for his years of sexist, boorish and generally obnoxious behaviour.

"As a courtesy I'm just letting you know that Human Resources is going to be conducting a complete audit of the performance reporting on your division's staff for the period you have been in command of the division" With some effort I remained calm even as Taylor's face began to redden.

"Audit, what audit? On what grounds?" I tilted my head to regard him as I spoke.

"Given you delivered glowing performance appraisals for all of your staff, and bearing in mind what's transpired since, it's only prudent" He shook his head angrily, reminding me of a cow shaking it's head when bothered by flies, then spoke, his voice growing harsh.

"Like hell it is" I reached down and flipped open the file in my lap, reading the comments there that I had highlighted for particular emphasis.

"An outstanding officer who exemplifies the best of the LAPD" I glanced up at him, seeing his face tighten in recognition. "That was Detective Sergeant Kennedy in your last appraisal" I looked down again as I flipped a page, picking out another highlighted passage. "Detective Humphries' professionalism is beyond reproach" I carefully looked up, catching him shifting uncomfortably in his seat even as I flipped to the next page and read out the equally damning words I'd noted. "Lieutenant Di Marco's outstanding record speaks for itself and he is a great asset to the LAPD" Taking him in, seeing him sitting there fidgeting I let one eyebrow lift as I tapped the files in my lap. "There's more here, all in the same vein" That comment stung Taylor into action.

"I wasn't to know what the hell they were doing..." I interrupted his pitiful excuses, cutting him off mid-justification.

"Indeed Commander, but it is patently obvious that you were also woefully unaware of what was transpiring in your division under your watch, therefore we are implementing a complete audit of your performance reviews on your entire division, for the period that you have led Robbery / Homicide" That set him off, he leaned forward angrily and growled at me.

"I damn well refuse to be treated like this" Unimpressed, I smiled, hopefully something like sympathetically though I didn't really put too much effort into it.

"You have to see it from my position Commander, six of your officers charged with capital crimes, all while you were their superior officer, from the reports you were filing it appears you were not only oblivious about what they were doing, but completely ignorant about your subordinate's actions in general. In fact reading your reports it seems you have been simply recycling the same stock sentences about your team throughout the period in question, calling into question the integrity of your entire performance management process" He shot to his feet angrily, staring down at me, his face red as a beetroot.

"I'll fight this, all the way to the top" I shrugged, unconcerned either by his posturing or his awareness of exactly how much I was going to enjoy this as I spoke, my voice hopefully doing a reasonable facsimile of professionalism.

"Fight it all you like Commander, but Chief Pope has already signed off on it, after briefing the Mayor of course" I smiled, hopefully with not too much malice. "I understand that the Mayor was eager to see that the LAPD was cleaning house in the wake of a..." I paused for effect, seeming to try and recall Will Pope's recollection of the Mayor's angry comments, recounted with relish. "...what were his words...oh yes; I believe 'a disastrous fiasco' were his exact words" Taylor's face reddened dramatically, his anger easily heard in his voice.

"You bitch, you can't treat me this way" I closed the folder and stood, patently unimpressed by his theatrics and inordinately pleased to be able to help deliver some much-needed retribution after all these years of his foul behavior.

"One more thing Commander, this audit, should it uncover anything which suggests that you were remiss in managing the men and women under your command, will provide the basis for a formal review of your fitness to command" I shrugged once more. "Given what we've learned so far, I'd suggest you look to your own interests first" I smiled, hopefully not too obviously spitefully. "Good day Commander" With that I turned and walked out, leaving Taylor standing there dumbfounded.

I'd played my part but, as the Commander was about to discover, his day had started badly and was only going to get much, much worse.

**Andrea**

I sat back in the privacy of my office as the call went through; trying hard to not let the evil glee I was feeling bleed out in my voice as Russell Taylor's voice answered.

"Taylor"

"Ah Commander Taylor, Andrea Hobbs from the District Attorney's office here, I'm ringing to pass on some information that's just come up" Taylor's voice was only mildly interested, no doubt he was still digesting what Candace had already told him, my job was to add a few more straws to that particular camel's back.

"Yeah, what information's that?" I spun in my chair to look out the window as I fought to keep my voice professional, I'd been sitting on this news for almost two weeks, it was now well and truly time to drop this particular bombshell into Taylor's lap.

"The relatives of three of the people who were in the Justice Department's Witness Protection program and who were allegedly killed by members of the LAPDs Robbery / Homicide division are bringing an action against the Department for the wrongful and illegal death of their loved ones"

"What the fuck!" For a moment I held the phone away from my ear as his voice exploded out of the speaker, before he went on in a much quieter voice. "It's gonna go nowhere, right?" I smiled, even as I kept the satisfaction I felt at his tentative tone out of my voice.

"That depends; the action is being brought as a group suit by a law firm that specialises in speculative claims, a company I would categorise as little more than ambulance-chasing bottom-feeders. That said they will attempt to show that the LAPD did not do all that it could to prevent the deaths of the victims, while we will, of course, be vigorously defending the department against their claims" I paused, then continued before he could respond. "I would suggest that you will play a key role in the case" His voice was a surprised yelp.

"Me?" I nodded unconsciously even though he couldn't see it then continued.

"Naturally, as the officer who presided over the actions of Powell, Kennedy, Di Marco, Humphries, Osmond and Farrar while they were allegedly acting as the Sinaloa cartel's paid assassins, you will be a key witness for both the prosecution and the defence" His voice was slow and full of suspicion.

"What does that mean?" I toyed with the ends of my hair, idly wondering if it was time for a trim as I continued stringing Taylor along.

"I suspect it means that the plaintiff's lawyers will attempt to prove that you either knew of their actions and tacitly condoned them, or were so remiss in your duties that you showed almost criminal negligence in commanding a division that led to a situation where their activities could go on unchecked" The outrage in his voice was delicious.

"I knew nothing about any of that, you know that!" I tried to be sympathetic, or a least sound so.

"Indeed I do, in fact the LAPD will be arguing that what happened was outside of set departmental protocols, and that in normal circumstances their actions would have been detected, investigated and prevented" His voice was suddenly wary, the suspicion was back full force.

"What exactly do you mean, in normal circumstances?" I smiled to myself as I replied, slipping the figurative knife blade in between his ribs.

"That the LAPD fulfilled its obligations to prevent the wrongful death of those three Witness Protection program participants, but that the protocols in place were not sufficiently enforced to prevent the actions of those rogue officers" There was a stunned silence on the other end of the line for many seconds, even as my eyes tracked a distant helicopter as it moved through my office window's field of vision. Finally, as it disappeared from sight I decided to prompt him. "Are you there Commander?" Of course he was; I could hear his breathing down the line, finally he spoke, voice low with anger.

"You're hanging me out to dry, that's what this is, isn't it?" I tried to be reassuring, even though my heart wasn't in it; instead I was more interested in several split ends I'd found, definitely time for my stylist Karli to work her magic, Mikki rather liked running her fingers through my hair when we were snuggled in bed, often complimenting me on how soft and lovely it was; can't be having her dissapointed now could we?

"Of course not Commander, you'll have your chance to defend yourself from these scurrilous accusations of professional incompetence, criminal negligence and personal stupidity on the witness stand" I smiled. "You'll have your day in court, I assure you" Taylor's tone had changed dramatically.

"You're sure about this?" I let my smile out into my voice, he wasn't so cocky now.

"Indeed I am, there is however one piece of advice I would give you" His voice was suddenly suspicious again, he'd no doubt picked up from my tone something was amiss, as I went to twist the figurative knife.

"And what's that?" I swivelled my chair back round to my desk and pencilled in a note in my diary to book an appointment with Karli before continuing.

"The key focus of the District Attorney's office is protecting the LAPD, rather than individuals. The plaintiff's, if they feel they are getting nowhere implicating the department, may try and turn the focus on specific individuals, in particular, yourself" His response was an anguished cry.

"Me?" I nodded once more, though he obviously couldn't see me then replied.

"Well, you were the senior officer in charge and thus the logical person to have prevented their actions" His response was angry and immediate.

"That's bullshit" I smiled again at his beligerant tone before replying.

"Perhaps, but I would strongly urge you to consider having your own legal representation in court"

"Won't that be your job?" I smiled even wider, uncaring if he heard it in my voice.

"I am afraid not Commander, as I've stated, protecting the legal liability of the LAPD is the District Attorney's job, not protecting the reputation of individual officers" I let my smile turn into a grin. "Perhaps you should consider approaching the Police Union for assistance, given the significant on-going costs associated with quality legal representation; I understand you have close ties to the current union leadership so perhaps you should look to them for help" His voice was weak.

"You're joking right?" I smirked at his suddenly chastised tone; he wasn't quite so cocky now.

"Not at all Commander, anyway I thought you should be made aware of this new development, I didn't want you left out of the loop on this as well as everything else that's gone on" I chuckled, perhaps a little too nastily. "Have a good day Commander" With that I ended the call before he could reply; letting the evil satisfaction I was feeling out in a happy laugh in the privacy of my office.

**Natalie**

Raw was a bright, cheerful and trendy little bistro a reasonable distance from the Parker Centre, far enough that my chats with media contacts would not be overheard by a passing officer on their lunch break, besides it served excellent Spanish, the Tapas in particular were to die for, giving me the chance to mix a little lunch with work. I looked up at my name being called to see two attractive women walking this way. The tall, statuesque brunette, Alexia Marchand of KNBC News was followed by the rather more petite frame of Shauna Reynolds, the honey-blonde investigative reporter from the Los Angeles Times. Catching up with both women was a regular occurrence as part of my job; after all I appreciated the opportunity to mix business with pleasure as much as the next person; today though it was mostly pleasure, a well overdue pleasure.

By established convention no business was conducted until after greetings were exchanged, drinks delivered and food ordered. Once that was out of the way both journalists ditched the small talk, Alexia was first.

"Okay Nat, spill, give us something about this cops as assassin's case" Shauna nodded and backed her colleague up.

"Yeah, what the hell happened there?" I smiled easily before replying.

"Ladies, I'm sure you understand I couldn't possibly talk about a case that's still to go before the courts, no matter how much I'd like to" Shauna regarded me from under a raised eyebrow, then spoke.

"Bullshit" I smiled, unfazed by her blunt speech, it was just the way it was with her.

"No really, as you can imagine this one's going to be a media circus, so I can't be seen to be giving you anything that will form part of the case against them" Alexia just smiled.

"Yeah right, plausible deniability, we get it, but this is the biggest story out of the LAPD in years, not to mention you were right in the middle of it so c'mon, spill" I sighed, a little theatrically, all part of the game, before leaning forward and speaking quietly.

"Ladies, I meant it, this one is way too big for me to give you much..." I let the hook hang for a moment, certain they'd bite. Shauna was the first to take a nibble.

"I'll take whatever you'll give me" Alexia nodded in support as I looked down at the table for a moment, then back up and spoke.

"You know the basics, six cops charged with being part of a conspiracy to kill people in the Federal Government's Witness Protection program, they were being paid by a criminal organisation south of the border to kill these people, that's just the tip of the iceberg, it's believed they were responsible for other deaths as well, plus the attempts on the lives of LAPD and Bureau officers investigating their activities" Alexia quickly waved at me to keep going as she spoke.

"Yeah, we knew most of that..." She glanced to Shauna and got a confirming nod. "...but what else can you give us?" I shook my head a little.

"Not much, I'll be called to give evidence as I'm a material witness so I can't say much" I headed off their complaints with a raised hand. "That said I can give you something related..." They both leaned forward in anticipation as I continued. "You both have an indirect connection to the case" They exchanged a surprised look then looked back at me. I had to reel them in carefully, both were shrewd, smart women and they wouldn't react well if they thought they were being played. Alexia made a coaxing motion as she spoke.

"Well...?" I leaned forward a little conspiratorially as I explained.

"All six officers were members of the Robbery / Homicide division, commanded by one Commander Russell Taylor" Both sat back in unconscious unison, their eyes narrowing in thought; oh they knew Taylor all right, both were very attractive women, the sort that Taylor had extended his particularly slimy brand of 'charm' to when he was media liaison, back before I'd come on board and taken over that role. He'd protected his ass by threatening to cut off their access to the Department if they'd complained about his comments, attitude and behaviour, something they'd acquiesced to with bitter loathing but never forgotten. Both had made that clear to me after I'd taken over, making their relief very obvious. I smiled gently as I pressed on. "Given all that's transpired on his watch, you can understand that the Department's going to conduct a thorough investigation into 'every' aspect of his performance over the last few years" I lifted an eyebrow. "An extremely thorough investigation, looking into everything he's been involved with, everything he's done, for at least the last three years" They both nodded slowly, nasty smiles appearing at the thought of Taylor squirming. Shauna was the first to speak up.

"You have any idea who they've picked to run the investigation?" I nodded slowly.

"Normally it'd be either the Department's internal affairs or human resources people, but Pope wants this to be clean as possible, no chance of any claims of a cover up, so it's being handled externally" Shauna made an impatient gesture, tapping the table.

"By who Nat, give me a name!" I glanced at Alexia and smiled, happy to drop them this lead.

"I'll not only give you a name, I'll even throw in a phone number, on one condition" They both frowned at me as I waited them out, Alexia broke first.

"What condition?" I leaned back and regarded them both.

"On the condition that you both agree to talk to them about his behaviour to you while he was media liaison, including the threats to cut you out of access to the department" They exchanged a glance at each other, their faces thoughtful before they both looked back at me; first Shauna then Alexia nodding, with Shauna speaking.

"I'm in" Alexia sat back and waved her hand in my direction.

"Deal, now who?"

"Judge Sylvia McKinnon" Their eyes widened in disbelief before Alexia finally spoke, her voice reflecting the stunned look she was wearing.

"No fucking way, you're joking right?" I shook my head.

"Nope, got the good news yesterday" Alexia and Shauna glanced at each other and shared happy smiles, not that it was hard to work out why; McKinnon had a reputation as both a tenacious bitch and as something of a feminist, plus her office was notorious; it leaked information like a sieve. Finally Shauna spoke, her voice still carrying traces of her surprise.

"Holy shit, we couldn't have got a better choice if we'd tried" I smiled widely, Sharon had made the recommendation to Pope that he ask McKinnon to do it, she was known to be painfully straight down the line when it came to the law, she'd leave no stone unturned and was completely apolitical, well as much as any senior judge could be.

"That's the scoop, I'm sure you can both get something out of her office if you ask nicely" The smile they gave me was half happy, half malicious, both were looking at it as part work, part pay-back and all pleasure.

"Oh yeah" It was Alexia. "I'm sure of it" Shauna just nodded happily as I reminded them of our arangement.

"Just remember our deal" They both nodded agreeably as the waiter's appeared with our lunch.

"No problem Nat, more than happy to oblige" It was Shauna, while Alexia just smiled nastily. The rest of the meal passed pleasantly enough, though both wrapped up quickly enough, they wanted to get moving; they had a story to chase down after all. Not that I minded, I'd already had a mid-morning coffee meeting with Jenny Cicero from KNX news radio and Candace Sin from the local Fox affiliate, KTTV's Studio 11 LA News, and was scheduled to have coffee at 2.30 with Simone Saunders from KABC's Eyewitness News and Isabella Perez from the La Opinión Spanish-language paper, followed up with a late meeting with Katie Morgan from KCBS-TV and Tori Wells from the Los Angeles Daily News.

By this time tomorrow Russell Taylor was going to be the lead story across Los Angeles' media, a thought that filled me with an evil delight.

**Maura**

I cautioned myself that I really should not be taking so much pleasure in the misfortune of another, but I was prepared to, in Jane's words, 'cut myself a little slack' given the circumstances, though exactly what slack she was referring to and why I was cutting into it I was not exactly sure of. That said I was finding myself anticipating my one o'clock meeting; it should prove to be surprisingly satisfying.

Eight minutes late Robbery / Homicide's Detective Chen strolled through the door, his lack of concern at his deplorable tardiness obvious even as he slouched against the wall.

"What's up?" I looked up from my seat behind the desk, suppressing my natural manners and not asking him to take a seat as I would normally, I did not intend for him to be here long enough to get comfortable, he was here simply to convey a message.

"Detective, I asked you down here to inform you of a development which will affect you and the remaining members of the somewhat reduced compliment of the Robbery / Homicide division" He stood rather straighter and crossed his arms at my comment, somewhat defensively in my opinion, hardly a surprise given the opprobrium that his division had attracted from the rest of the LAPD since the story of the activities of their rogue members had started circulating throughout the force.

"Yeah, and what's that?" I smiled politely as I outlined what was to happen.

"Given the significant degree of evidence tampering and falsification of statements that appears to have been endemic within the Robbery / Homicide division, I have, with the agreement of Chief Pope, arranged for a review of all forensic investigations pertaining to Robbery / Homicide cases going back three years" He jerked upright away from the wall, his voice one part angry and one part plaintive.

"What the hell, you can't do that" I shook my head reprovingly even as I cut him down.

"Detective, I assure you not only can I do that, I have already set it in motion" I smiled as pleasantly as I could under the circumstances. "Investigators from a number of crime labs across the country will be conducting the reviews on a case by case basis, that being the situation I must inform you that until their investigations are complete all relevant cases will be frozen, subject to finalisation of each investigation" He threw his hands up in the air, somewhat theatrically in my opinion as he spoke, anger in his voice.

"That'll take months, what about our cases, some of them are being heard right now?"

"That is not my problem Detective. Given the appeals I understand already have been or are contemplated being lodged against any cases that involved any of the charged detectives from your division, and the subsequent taint by association all members of Robbery / Homicide now bear, I suspect that I am simply anticipating the actions of the courts and the District Attorney's office" He turned away for a moment, then turned back at me, his face and voice equally anguished.

"This is gonna ruin our cases, a lot of them depend on forensics" I nodded once; pleased to see he had grasped the reality of what I was saying.

"Quite so, however if you and the rest of your fellow detectives did your job and followed the appropriate standard departmental protocol's regarding the handling of evidence and the chain of custody, then it will be a regrettable and unavoidable delay, but one that will ensure that there will be no opportunity for defence to protest when those cases eventually go back to trial" I held up his hand to head him off as he went to speak. "On the other hand, any inconsistencies found will lead to an investigation by Internal Affairs of the officer or officers concerned" He shook his head again; anger was back in his voice.

"Oh Jesus, this is a nightmare" I shook my head reprovingly.

"On the contrary Detective, you should consider this a chance to clear your name. Provided nothing untoward turns up, you will be vindicated and thus likely to continue to be employed within the LAPD" He stood there staring at me in a stunned silence as he took in what I had said and implied before finally speaking.

"Why tell me? Why not give Taylor the news directly?" I held my smile in as I replied.

"I believe Commander Taylor is receiving other bad news at this point and thus it falls to you to be the bearer of this particular set of bad tidings" I didn't mention that I had deliberately selected him as he had been unpleasantly rude to me several times in recent months, thus making him the perfect messenger, far be it for me to deny him the joy of being the deliverer of bad tidings, he could thus be the one to weather the Commander's undoubtedly foul temper at this latest news. I nodded once. "That is all, have a good afternoon Detective Chen" As he stood there looking at me I tipped my head to regard him. "I am sure you can see your own way out Detective, please be good enough as to do so"

With that I turned back to my administrative paper work, making sure he didn't see the quietly satisfied and somewhat evil smile that broke out.

**Anastasia**

It was early afternoon and I was just in time to add my contribution to ruining Taylor's day. The man in question was sitting at his desk in Robbery / Homicide, his back to me with his chair swivelled to take in the view out the window, no doubt contemplating the mess he was in. I ignored the remains of his shrunken team and walked straight up to his door, rapping once on the open door as I passed through. He spun in his chair to see me take the seat across his desk, his face darkening in barely-suppressed anger as I crossed my legs and sat back, awaiting his response, it wasn't long in coming.

"Make yourself at home why don't you?" Expecting his foul mood I just smiled, anticipating his response to the news I was delivering with more than a little dark amusement.

"Don't mind if I do" His expression changed to a scowl at my cavalier attitude, his voice reflecting the same.

"What the fuck do you want?" I sat back, crossed my legs and regarded him.

"I'm here to give you a heads up that there's going to be an investigation into your division, looking into your suspended officers handling of any and all cases over the last few years" He wasn't as shocked as I'd anticipated, but after all that had happened today he was probably a little punch drunk already.

"What's that got to do with you?" I smiled nastily, unconcerned for his opinion. I was so looking forward to Taylor getting his just desserts; the man was quite frankly a loathsome human being to deal with, especially if you were an attractive female, all of us had born the brunt of the man's bigotry at one time or another so being part of a team effort to tear him down was pure unadulterated pleasure, something I didn't bother hiding.

"It's been decided that a thorough review into your division's investigations needs to be conducted and, given the nature of what's gone on, it was felt that it should be handled by someone independent so as to avoid any sense of impropriety, to that end I was asked to request a team of Bureau investigators to look into past cases involving any of your six implicated officers" His face darkened even as his volume increased in synch.

"No fucking way is that going to happen. Who the hell approved that?" I shrugged, unconcerned, something my voice carried clearly.

"Chief Pope, after consulting with the Mayor" I smiled. "As you'd imagine, the Mayor wants no stone unturned in making sure the scandal you've presided over is cleaned up, so who better to do so than a Federal organisation with no connection to your division?" Taylor scowled at me as he searched for grounds to argue, finally replying.

"The Bureau has no jurisdiction over the LAPD, you've no right to come in here" I shook my head gently, happy to prove him wrong.

"That's when you're mistaken, the death of a number of Witsec protectee's at the hands of your division's detectives makes this a Justice Department matter and the Bureau has been designated lead investigative agency for this. They'll be going through every case your team's disgraced officers have worked for the last three years, looking for any hint of impropriety" I leveled him with a look. "For your sake you'd better pray they don't find anything" Taylor was still trying to object.

"I'm not handing my files over to your people" I smiled a little wider at him; I'd just known he'd be a complete ass about this, he couldn't help himself really.

"You don't have to; a Bureau team is already down in records collecting the files as we speak" Taylor's mouth worked angrily; finally he spat the words out.

"We don't have to talk to you and your witch hunt" He stared at me, trying to be intimidating and failing badly as I shrugged, he had a reputation as an ass and he was living down to it, something we'd already anticipated.

"That would be a particularly stupid thing to do Commander, obstructing a Federal investigation would bring down a world of pain on you and your team" I smiled politely and continued. "If we determined that you'd encouraged your people not to cooperate, well I can assure you that an obstruction of justice charge would follow pretty much immediately" I smiled a little wider. "I can also assure you I'd be the one to arrest you and perp-walk you out of the building in cuffs" I let my smile shift to a smirk. "Trust me, I can't wait" Taylor just stared at me; anger warring with fear on his face before he finally spoke, grinding out the words.

"You can't be fucking serious?" I shrugged nonchalantly.

"Oh I am Commander" I stood and stared back at him, letting my voice harden. "You threatened my fiancée and some of my best friends, I don't take that lightly" As I stood there I saw movement out of the corner of my eye as one of Taylor's people, Chen, walked rapidly into the room and turned this way, he looked very unhappy; instilling a sense of deep, dark satisfaction inside me; it looked like he'd just got Maura's message and was on his way to pass it on to Taylor, making me smile as nastily as I could. "I have no doubt your already shitty day just got worse, but let me tell you it's barely started"

Deciding it wasn't my place to keep Chen from spreading the good news and not waiting for a response I nodded at Taylor and walked out, passing Chen on his way in and leaving Taylor stewing in my wake.

If all went well his bad day was about to become far, far worse.

**Sharon**

It was mid-afternoon and it was my opportunity to add to Russell Taylor's monumental burden, something I was anticipating with barely-concealed gleeful anticipation. Strolling into his office I found him standing, gazing out the window, head bowed.

"Ah there you are Commander" His head jerked up as he turned to me, his face contorting into a sneer.

"What the fuck do you want?" I smiled, mostly to myself, if all had gone to plan Russell Taylor's day had spiraled into a truly awesome mess, being one of the later people to pile onto his already awful day meant that he was even less likely to be pleasant than usual however on the other hand being unpleasant was a fairly consistent trait of the man.

"Charming as always" I shook my head once as I slid my hands into my coat's pockets, a habit Brenda sometimes teases me about. "I don't particularly like you Commander but one thing I can always count on is that you are remarkably predictable. Your abusive and demeaning behaviour is as much a part of you as your appalling fashion sense, however your execrable taste in ties is not the reason I'm here" He stared at me, barely a hint of his usual bluster apparent.

"Then what the hell are you doing here, besides helping make an already fucked-up day even worse?" I smiled happily, unconcerned at his reaction.

"I'm here to inform you that every OIS involving your entire division for the last three years is being placed under the microscope by a Justice Department investigative team. I doubt they will find anything we haven't already, however they will require you and your affected detectives, which is all of them, those not currently incarcerated that is, to appear before a review panel" His appalled look was delicious, as was his shaky denial.

"We can't do that, we've got cases to run" I shrugged, unconcerned with his problems or his recognition of that lack of concern, happy to point out it wasn't like he had a choice.

"I sincerely doubt that Commander, given all that has happened I suspect the only running you will be doing for the foreseeable future will be between the various investigations into you and your officer's conduct in recent years" His face reddened alarmingly as he took a step forward and stood there, his desk seperating us as he blustered.

"Who's fucked-up idea was this, yours no doubt" I withdrew my hands from my pockets and carefully crossed my arms as I regarded him.

"Actually yes, after all, it was the correct thing to do under the circumstances" His mouth twisted in a particularly ugly way as he spoke.

"What the fuck's that supposed to mean?" I smiled as I explained, happy for him to see how much I was enjoying this.

"Commander, taking their lead from you as their commanding officer, your division has the highest rate of OIS incidents per capita of any division in the department, your people shoot first and think afterwards and, based on what we've seen with at least six of your officers, the only thinking many of them did was how to hide the evidence" The desperation in Taylor's voice was easily heard, no doubt he had realised that he was in a world of pain thanks to his errant officers.

"That's got nothing to do with me, none of it has" I shook my head as I replied, happy to shoot that defence down.

"On the contrary, I believe it was you who stated to your team that they should in the case of an OIS investigation, and I believe this is a direct quote, 'tell that frigid bitch and her team of cock-sucking lackeys nothing, they can all go get fucked', hardly a cooperative attitude there Commander" A member of my team, Mark Rosenberg, had overheard one of Robbery / Homicide's detectives recounting Taylor's exact words to a group of other detectives at O'Malley's several months ago and passed it on to me, something I'd been saving for just such an occasion. Taylor just stared at me for a moment and then spoke; his voice was trying for confident but failing.

"Sounds like good advice to me" I shrugged as I replied.

"I would not be so sure about that Commander, there are harsh penalties that accrue for attempting to mislead a Justice Department inquiry and I am sure Special Agent Romanov would take inordinant pleasure in arresting you for it" His demeanor changed as he leaned over his desk, one hand supporting him as he used the other to point at me.

"You dyke bitches are behind this, all of this" I shrugged, hoping it conveyed my monumental lack of concern as he continued raving. "I won't stand for this, this is a fucking witch hunt, I'll have all of you before the internal review board for this, let's see how you go facing misconduct charges" At that last I smiled, unconcerned.

"Given all that has transpired in this division on your watch, I believe the person most likely to face a review board for misconduct is you Commander" I slowly uncrossed my arms and ostentatiously checked my watch, I had a case review meeting with my team so I needed to wrap this up, no matter how personally enjoyable I was finding Taylor's predicament. "Besides, given the Chief signed off on it with the full backing of the Mayor and in consultation with the Governor's office, I doubt it is I who has anything to fear from a review of my actions" I smiled as sweetly as I could. "Unlike you I might add" His fist slamming into the desk was loud in the office.

"I will fight this, fight it every step of the way" I shrugged, monumentally unimpressed.

"Do as you please Commander, after all that's what you've done so far and look at how well that's worked out for you" The insult I expected wasn't long in coming.

"Fuck you, you frigid, stuck up bitch" I smiled at him as I tipped my head to him in mock-curtesy.

"Thank you for the offer Commander, but as you may recall I have a far more attractive offer available at home tonight, something I'm anticipating will nicely cap off a very, very satisfying day" He smashed his fist down on the desk again as he spoke, his voice full of pent up anger.

"Fucking dykes, you're all arrogant cunts" I shrugged, unconcerned.

"Brenda and I prefer the term gay actually, but whatever floats that toxic little boat of yours" I paused then pushed on. "I will pass on one piece of advice though" I nodded his way, taking undisguised relish in what I had to say "Try not damage the furniture too much, I doubt your successor would appreciate it" With that I turned and strolled out, the sight of Russell Taylor standing there with his mouth open in shock bringing a quiet smile to mine.

**Brenda**

"Why good afternoon to you Commander, I trust you're having a truly excellent day" He looked up from where he was sitting at his desk, head in hands, to look at me where I was leaning against the door into his office, I could see the strain in his face even as I tried not to revel in it too much. When he spoke the anger was easily apparent.

"I suppose you're here to gloat?" I smiled as I replied.

"Now Commander, whatever in the world would lead you to that conclusion?" The scowl that appeared was vintage Taylor, as was the tone.

"I bet you were responsible for everything, all the shit that's happened" I let my smile widen as I casually strolled into his office.

"Why not at all, you give me far too much credit Commander, each of us worked very hard to come up with something particularly special for you, after all, given your behaviour to us all, it was the least we could do" To be honest my only regret was that we hadn't found a way for Jane and Mikki to be able to actively contribute; ah well, we couldn't have everything. Taylor was still fulminating at the world.

"I'll fight this, fight it all, I won't be treated like this" I shrugged, unimpressed.

"Have it your way Commander, fight it all you like. In fact I suggest you should take it to Will Pope if you like" He peered at me suspiciously, quickly putting two and two together.

"You've done something, haven't you?" I was all wide-eyed innocence in response.

"Me? No, not at all, your current mess is completely the result of your own hard work and dedication" I shrugged carelessly; as if his current situation was of no concern whatsoever to me. "I'm simply here as a messenger. I just finished up with Will and he asked you to step up to his office, immediately"

We'd actually been discussing arrangements for the eventual trial of the six Witsec suspects, managing the case load and the like given how many of the Department's senior people would be involved in giving evidence. That had naturally turned to Taylor, with Will saying he had to get him in to outline how the many open cases currently being dealt with by Robbery Homicide would be handled going forward, so I'd casually mentioned that I was more than happy to pass the message on. Will had peered at me through narrowed eyes for a long moment before slowly nodding, cautioning me to not leave too much blood on the floor afterwards. Finally Taylor spoke up questioningly.

"What's this all about?" I smiled at him as sweetly as I could, knowing he'd immediately think the worst.

"I could speculate all day, but I'm afraid you don't have time for that, given you're supposed to be up in his office A.S.A.P."

"I don't take orders from dykes" I chuckled softly.

"Will Pope might be many things, but I can assure you he is no lesbian…" I let it hang for a second then continued on. "On the other hand he does have an eye for beautiful woman though, so we do share that trait, if nothing else" Taylor sneered at me even as he turned and headed for the door, as I trailed behind he turned to address me over his shoulder.

"Enjoy it while you can, I'm gonna beat this shit, same as I have every other time, then I'm gonna come after you" I shook my head slowly at his idiocy as I followed him through his team's area, ignoring the hostile glances sent my way, they were of no concern to me.

"I doubt you will be doing anything of the kind, you'll be far, far too busy trying to salvage what little's left of your reputation, especially given all that's going to happen" He frowned at me as he reached the foyer and pushed the button to go up to the executive floor.

"What the hell are you talking about?" His gaze narrowed as he leaned forward a bit. "What have you done" I smiled a little wider.

"Why nothing you need to worry your head about Commander, like I said, you have far more pressing problems right now" I idly examined my nails then spoke off-handedly. "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough"

Before he could say anything the doors to the car opened and lo and behold, the gods had smiled, or in the Commander's case perhaps not, for standing there were Jane and Mikki, carrying on a conversation, one they paused as they turned to us.

"Afternoon Chief" It was Mikki as Jane's greeting followed.

"Hi Chief" I nodded and smiled.

"Good afternoon detectives, could I trouble you to please push the button for the executive floor, after all that is where the Commander is headed" Mikki nodded as Jane held the door with her arm to allow Taylor in. I watched him enter as they stepped to the back, giving him plenty of room as I smiled and waved.

"Bye Commander, you all have a wonderful day mind" The doors slid shut before he could respond as I let a nasty chuckle out.

**Jane**

I love it when a plan comes together. We'd heard that Brenda was seeing Taylor and that he'd be on his way to Pope next so we carefully got things ready.

It'd taken a bit of preparatory work and we'd had to drag Buzz in for some of it, something he'd happily agreed to once we explained why, but we'd arrived at the Robbery / Homicide floor and then hit the elevators override button, holding it at this floor with the doors closed as Mikki and I carried on a desultory conversation while we waited. We'd agreed that we needed to make sure Taylor realised the consequences of threatening our partners, she'd had no hesitation in agreeing when I'd laid out my plan, after all with all the shit Taylor was in I doubt he'd be in any position to give us grief afterwards.

As we heard Brenda's soft lilt and Taylor's angry growl we waited until they got close then hit the door open button, seeing them standing there. Brenda just smiled and asked us to hit the executive floor button for the Commander, something Mikki did before we stepped back and let him in.

The lift took off and we exchanged a glance before I leaned forward and tapped the emergency stop button, getting an angry scowl and growl from Taylor as he turned to face us.

"What the fuck..." I stepped forward into his space and leaned in.

"This is a private and personal message you useless piece of sexist filth" I sneered at him. "You've threatened my fiancée three times, do it once more and I'll make sure you vanish off the face of the earth" He reared back then tried to lean into my personal space, trying for intimidating but really only achieving a weak bluster.

"I'll have your badge for this you stupid bitch" I shrugged, glancing at Mikki then back to him as I replied.

"How, the only witness to this is Detective Mendoza here" I turned my head to her. "Right Mikki?" She smiled innocently as she replied.

"Sure, we spent the ride up talking about soccer" She shrugged then continued. "You got out and we kept going"

"I'll have both your badges you cunts" I grabbed his shirt and shoved him back into the lift doors, holding him there easily, he was a big guy but soft as I snarled at him, my voice low and angry, he'd threatened Maura repeatedly, well no more.

"I don't think so scum ball, you try something and well…given all the shit you've caused the LAPD, well I don't think too many people would look too hard for you" Mikki leaned in and placed her hand on mine, looking like she was trying to calm the situation down, then spoke, completely dispelling that notion.

"Yeah, a note left behind suggesting you couldn't handle all the pressure, then no trace of you found, all too easy for the investigation to determine that you weren't of sound mind and did away with yourself" She shrugged. "Not hard if all the pieces are in play" Taylor looked apoplectic, like he was going to blow a blood vessel, his face was an alarming purple colour even as he snarled at her.

"What's your fucking problem Mendoza, I thought you were smarter than this, teaming up with this psycho lez bitch" Mikki's mouth was a hard line, her voice flat and tightly controlled.

"I decided that you had to pay after my partner told me the proposition you dropped on her a few months back" Mikki's mouth twisted like she wanted to spit. "Telling her that the best place for any woman is on her knees and that she should be grateful that you were willing to give her a proper ass fucking from your big black cock was hardly the smartest thing you've ever done" I turned to look at Mikki in surprise; she hadn't told me exactly what Taylor had done, just that he'd been a sexist prick, this though was worse than I thought.

"This miserable piece of shit said that?" At her nod I looked back at Taylor. "One more out of line comment to anyone we care about and you become a suicide statistic, you understand me?" Taylor tried for some kind of threat but neither of us cared.

"I'll have you both up on charges, you'll rot in jail for this" Mikki and I smiled unconcerned as I replied.

"I don't think so, you see we have an alibi, you have a track record of thuggery and threats to women and if you're thinking the video camera in here will back you up, well, I'm sorry but it's on the fritz, so no evidence" A few seconds work by Buzz with a screwdriver and a pair of cutters had seen to that. I smiled as Mikki spoke.

"Remember what we said, one more threat and you vanish, got it _perras_?"

"You won't get away with this" I shrugged as I hit the button to get us started again.

"We already have" Seconds later the elevator stopped and the doors opened as I stepped back and spoke. "Bye Commander" Mikki nodded.

"Have a good day, I know we have" With that I shoved him out the door and let it close.


	94. Chapter 94

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**94 The Confession**

Anastasia's viewpoint

We piled out of the cab at Maura and Jane's place after a casual dinner and drinks night, we weren't completely smashed but none of us were anywhere near sober either; it took Maura two attempts to get her key in the door, apparently she was as tipsy as the rest of us, half holding onto Jane, face creased in a frown as she tried to get the right key into the lock. After dinner we'd ended up in the Regent Bar drinking all sorts of strange cocktails until late, something I was pretty sure we'd all regret tomorrow.

Natalie clung tightly to me, obviously still under the influence of the multiple Butterballs she'd put away late into the night; she loved the taste, but they packed a lethal punch. I was definitely feeling the effects of the Liquid Cocaine's that Maura insisted I try while Jane had turned out to have an affinity for Blue Lagoons that I'd found surprising for a born and bred beer drinker.

Maura had been trying a different cocktail each round so she was pretty far gone which helped explain her difficulty with the door, she finally managed to get the right key in the right hole and coordinate turning both the key and the handle together to get the door open so we could stumble inside, a hot, happy mess of tipsy girls.

We ended up on the sofas; slowly sipping glasses of water that Maura had insisted on as it would help the dehydration that was going to hit us overnight. The silence was comfortable, just sitting there, happy to be with our friends, coming down from a great fun night, god knows we needed some fun down time after the past few weeks.

Finally Natalie pulled herself together sufficiently to lean over to kiss me on the lips without collapsing on me then stand up, swaying oh so slightly. To be honest I hadn't seen her this tipsy in a while, normally she doesn't let herself get much more than nicely buzzed but tonight she had been the party girl, up for anything. I grinned as she tried to compose herself, looking a fraction worse for wear as I teased her.

"Blondie, you're a mess, a hot mess I'll grant you, but still a mess" She peered down at me, her eyes not quite as sharp as normal.

"Am not, besides, you're no better" I tried scoffing at her but that required too much effort apparently so I settled for more teasing.

"At least I can stand without swaying" She narrowed her eyes at me, staring down at me from her full height then spoke.

"Bet you can't" I waved her challenge away, she was probably right anyway as she continued speaking. "Besides, it was all in a good cause. We haven't had a night like that in a while" I nodded agreeably, it'd been a while, that's for sure.

"True" I looked over at Jane and Maura, who were cuddling quietly on another couch. "What about you guys?" Jane looked back and spoke up.

"The last Friday night before we came to LA was pretty bad; we ended up at the Dirty Robber until they had to close. Neither of us remember getting home, just being dead to the world until late the following day" Maura nodded and picked up the story.

"I had the worst hangover ever the following morning, I felt like I was going to die, I should have drunk the water..." She shook her glass gently at us. "…before I went to bed. I will not make that mistake again tonight" Natalie smiled at them both and spoke.

"Well it was fun, I had a great time and don't regret a thing" Jane grinned as she tossed down the last of the water in her glass then spoke.

"Neither do we; a good thing we don't do this much though" That drew her a gentle admonshment from Maura.

"Often darling, the correct termnology is that we don't do this often" She got a somewhat diluted mock-glare from Jane as Nat nodded and smiled happily at me before turning back to look at them as she spoke.

"We don't this sort of thing all that often either but it was wonderful to be out with you guys, having fun. We love you both" Maura smiled.

"We love you as well; you have both been so good to us since we got here" Nat laughed happily, even more uninhibited than normal.

"You guys are the best people; it's been wonderful knowing you both. I love you both, you're such good friends." Her statement was slightly undone by the slight swaying motion that had set in as Jane laughed gently from where she was cuddled on the couch and replied.

"Natalie, you're drunk as. You probably won't even remember this in the morning. You should probably go to bed before you say something you'll regret" I watched as Nat pulled herself up, standing a little straighter, the look in her eyes firming up as I looked at her curiously; I could tell she was coming to a decision. She walked over to the table and carefully poured another glass of water and sank it in two gulps, before turning to face Jane and Maura.

"I don't regret anything and I won't regret this either" She reached out, extending a hand to Maura. "Maura honey, stand up please" Maura's eyes widened but she acquiesced, disentengling from their mutual embrace and taking Natalie's hand, rising to stand facing Nat, still holding her hand as my lover looked at her for a moment, her eyes soft and shining before speaking.

"There's a saying; 'in vino veritas'; basically you tend to tell the truth when you're drunk. Well here goes" I looked at her for a moment, wondering what she was going to say, whatever I thought it'd be I wasn't expecting what I got, Nat's voice was soft and clear. "Maura, I love you, I think you are the smartest, loveliest, softest person I've ever met. You are stunningly beautiful, inside and out, you're smart and you give yourself to your friends so much" She shook her head as Maura went to say something. "No wait, let me finish" She took a deep breath before continuing.

"That first night at the Intersection, I watched you in that dress and all I could think of was that you looked amazing. If Jane wasn't your partner and I didn't belong to Ana, mind, body and soul, I would have tried to win your heart that night. Damn, I doubt we would have even got out of the bedroom. Everything I have seen of you just makes me love you even more. You are one of the most beautiful people I've ever met, inside and out. Jane is so incredibly lucky to have you" Maura was blushing and dropped her eyes at Natalie's words while Jane just stared at Natalie. I felt my own jaw drop as she pressed on.

"I learn so much just by being around you, about things I never even considered, I don't know how you do it, but I want you to keep educating me for the rest of our lives because I am in awe of you, all you know, all you are. I was so jealous of Jane that night you know, I could hear her screaming your name and it turned me on so much, to know how much you loved her" She suddenly grinned. "Hell, I bet sex with you would be an education in itself" Maura looked back up, smiling softly and blushing as Natalie kept going. "I love you because you are my friend, our friend; and you are someone I want to spend my time with, because you make us all feel so special. You claim you're no good with people, but I watch you, you're instincts are fine, but then you learnt from the best." She turned to smile at Jane, who was staring at Natalie, her mouth open in shock. I couldn't blame her, how often do you watch another woman tell you how much she loves your partner. Truth be told I was feeling the same, Natalie lived with her heart on her sleeve, but this was something new even for her.

"Maura, you are a remarkably special woman, Jane is unbelievably lucky to love you and be loved by you. I wish you both every happiness forever" She slowly pulled Maura into a hug, before placing a soft kiss on Maura's lips as I felt my jaw drop wide open again. They stared at each other for a moment before Natalie stepped back and looked at Maura with bright shining eyes.

"And if Jane ever hurts you, in any way, for any reason, I will hunt her down and kill her" Turning she reached out for Jane's hand. "Jane, please stand up" Slowly Jane stood, uncertainty visible in her eyes as Natalie reached out and took first one hand then the other into her own. "Please let me speak Jane" Jane slowly nodded as Nat pressed on.

"Jane, I love you too. You are a stunning, brave and absolutely beautiful woman. You have one of the biggest hearts of anyone I have ever met. You try and hide it, but I've seen it and heard Maura talk about it enough to know; you are simply amazing. That night we went to The Intersection, I looked at you when I walked out and saw you in a completely different light for the first time and I was stunned. You looked so…different, so beautiful" She took a deep breath. "If you were single and I wasn't so completely owned by Anastasia I would have seduced you then and there. I looked at those wonderful long legs and I wanted them wrapped around me, for you to be mine, to be held in those strong arms of yours. I still don't know why you hide yourself under those suits. You should be walking catwalks in Paris or be a Victoria's Secret angel. If you were mine I would dress you in silks and skirts and flowing dresses to show the world that my stunning lover was beautiful and amazing and gorgeous" She shook her head as Jane went to say something. "Uh ah, let me finish" She leaned in and waved her finger in front of Jane, then pressed it to her lips, a plea for silence. Jane's mouth closed and she waited as Nat pressed on, reaching down and tmaking both of Jane's scarred hands in hers.

"But you chose to be a cop, like Ana, that's one more reason I love you, you and her are so alike. You could both be doing something far less dangerous, something where you could just be the beautiful women you are, without having to live amongst the danger and the crime and the death. Instead you chose to devote your life to making the world a safer place, and I'm in awe of your strength" Smiling she slowly raised Jane's hands to her lips, kissing the scars on the back of each hand in turn as I saw Jane tremble at the warm, whisper-soft touch, while I saw tears forming in Maura's eyes; I could feel them in mine too.

"I said you were beautiful Jane. You are. So are these. They tell the world that you've faced the worst that life could do to you and emerged stronger than before. There's a saying, 'what does not kill us makes us stronger', Jane, you are the proof of that; not only did you emerge stronger, you emerged as a woman who is more than worthy of being loved. Maura is so very, very lucky; I am so envious of what you two have together" She dropped the hands and pulled Jane into a hug, kissed her gently full on the lips as I saw the hint of tears in Jane's eyes. Finally stepping back she smiled.

"And if Maura ever does anything to make you doubt her love for you for even an instant, I will find her and kill her slowly"

I saw Jane swallow painfully, nodding at Natalie as she stepped back and wrapped her arms around Maura, who had tears gently falling down her face. Natalie, turned to me, her normally sassy grin appearing as she held out her hand to me.

"Come here Tsarina" I brushed at my eyes and stood, stepping up to her. She reached out and took my hand in hers as I swallowed, wondering what was coming.

"And then there's you, Anastasia Katarina Romanov" Her grin changed to a soft smile, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "How do I describe the most incredible person on Earth? Well, you're beautiful and kind and strong and loving and brave and amazing and that barely touches the surface. I wonder at times how I ever managed to be with you, to be worthy of your love. There's so much strength and love in there; I could no more do without it than I could fly to the moon. Without you I'd be a dead shell, with you I feel I can take on the world" I smiled even though I could feel the tears making their way down my cheeks as she continued.

"You give me the knowledge that you love me, with you at my side I feel I can do anything, be anything. You let me love you with all my heart, and love me back the same way. That's a gift without price or equal" I went to say something, anything, but she shook her head. "Shush Tsarina" She gently lifted my hand to her lips and kissed it gently.

"I love you Anastasia, Deep down I've always loved you, from the time we first met, I just didn't realise it back then. I love you even more now than I did then. I wake up each morning snuggled against you and I'm filled with joy and happiness knowing that I have your love and that I love you totally. I want you to live every day knowing that I love you and no matter what happens in the future I will always love you" I felt a lump in my throat at her words, she had told me she loved me before, but here and now it had never meant as much.

"I love Jane and Maura; they are the best people I have ever met. But I belong to you Tsarina, heart and soul. You remember that first night we went to The Intersection?" Unable to speak I just nodded. She smiled, obviously seeing the emotion in my eyes as she spoke, her voice soft. "I walked out to see you there, Jane was stunning, Maura was sexy as hell, but you my love, you took my breath away, literally. I was finding it hard to breath. I would happily have dragged you back into the bedroom and never come out; I wanted to eat you up, to love you forever, to make sure you know all over again that you are mine and I am yours" She smiled, a little wickedly. "Why do you think I bite so much in bed? I want everyone on the planet to know you belong to me, that I belong to you and that we are together. You should do the same Ana, I would proudly carry your mark, to let everyone know that I belong to you and I will never love anyone the way I love you" She stepped up to me until our lips were barely separated, our foreheads touching, I leaned in as I felt her breath on my lips as she spoke softly.

"Thank you for loving me, for making me complete, for letting me love you" I couldn't say anything, the lump in my throat stopping me, so instead I wrapped my arms around her and captured her mouth with mine, feeling the tears run down my face and mingle with hers as her body pressed against mine, her hands buried in my hair and at the small of my back, pulling us together.

Finally we stepped back, and I looked over to see Jane and Maura holding tightly to each other. Natalie looked down, wiping the tears from her face, before taking a deep breath.

"Well there it is, now you know" She swallowed nervously, before giving a small smile. "I love you all" There was silence; I think we were all overwhelmed. "Well, I'm going to bed before I say anything else I shouldn't" I looked at her, realising she had suddenly understood what she had said and was scared that she had said something wrong, somehow damaged us, all of us. I went to step forward, but Maura was there first, her arms wrapped around Natalie, crying and holding her. Jane and I were there next, we were a mass of crying, hugging women. I could hear Jane and Maura repeating the same things I was saying; 'I love you', over and over again. Finally we disentangled ourselves and stood there, gentle, slightly embarrassed smiles breaking out until Jane reached out and laid her hand on Natalie's shoulder.

"Natalie, you said and did nothing wrong. If anything, it's something that had to be said" Maura nodded, her hands holding Natalie's.

"We love you too, we love spending time with you both, you make us happy and I think we make you both happy" I smiled as Natalie nodded and spoke, her voice thick with tears.

"Oh god yes, you do, you do!" Jane smiled in return then spoke quietly.

""I've never had friends like you and Ana, I didn't fit in with the girls at school. Then I decided I'd be a cop, which made me even less of one of the girls" She shrugged. "I became part of a really male culture. The first real girlfriend I ever had was Maura; we became friends, then best friends, then lovers. Now I not only have Maura, I have two best friends here in LA who we love and who love us. Add in Alex and Liv in New York and from where I stand, life's pretty damned good"

Maura wrapped an arm around Jane and pulled her close, smiling fondly at her, before turning to look at us.

"I had an unfortunate childhood, I did not really fit in anywhere and I was always the strange one, the one that was different. Jane was the first to look past that and see who I could be. Now I have people who love me for who I am, in spite of what I am. Thank you for loving us and letting us love you" Maura leaned into Jane's embrace as Natalie smiled then turned her head to me as I spoke.

"I love and have the love of the most beautiful woman I've ever known, so how could I be any happier?" I turned to include Jane and Maura. "Since my dad died, I have no real family left, just Natalie, Lauren and their parents. Now I have the next best thing to a family" I shook my head slowly. "I'm not as eloquent as Blondie here, even when I'm sober, but I love you both. You've become an essential part of our lives in such a short time and I can't imagine not having you tangled up with everything we do, today, tomorrow and forever" I stepped up and engulfed them in a huge group hug, giving them both a quick kiss before stepping back and wrapping an arm around Natalie's shoulders.

"Now it's been a big night and we need to get some sleep, tomorrow's another day" I looked over at the clock on the wall, it was nearer 2.30. "Well later today is"

Another round of hugs and kisses later, we took our leave and made our way to the guest bedroom where Natalie tumbled onto the bed, falling back onto the pillow as I sat on the end of the bed to pull my boots and jeans off, calling back over my shoulder.

"You ok Blondie?" She sounded soft and tired and happy all at once.

"Yeah, just a big night, especially the last bit" I laughed softly.

"You got that right but it had to be said and it brought a lot of things into the open, where they needed to be" I pulled my top off and walked over to hang the clothes up. Standing there in a bra and panties, I stopped for a moment and thought over what she had said, reflecting on her words about how I made her feel. I turned to talk to Natalie. "Hey Nat, thank you for…" I had to stop, she was already asleep; the combination of alcohol, the lateness and the emotionally draining confession outside had taken their toll and she'd crashed hard.

She was still fully clothed, so, smiling to myself, I pulled her shoes off, getting a murmured protest from my sleeping beauty. I then leaned in and kissed her gently before spooning up against her back. The last thing I remember was her soft breathing, the tickle of her hair against my neck and a blissfully happy smile on my face.


	95. Chapter 95

Hi everyone, I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, wherever you may be. It's Boxing Day here in Australia, which makes it Christmas Day in North America; I hope your days are filled with family, friends and fun.

Well here we are, this book's almost complete; a few more mostly fluffy chapters to go to hit the magic 100 to close this one off. What happens then you ask?

Well we will segue into a mostly completely written series called Breaking Barriers, which is a story of around 60 chapters that bridges between Intersecting Lines Book 2 and 3 and which will have repercussions throughout Book 3. It will star Olivia and Alex, together with Kate Beckett and Richard Castle, with a few other cameos. That one will be posting at the rate of one chapter a day.

Then of course Intersecting Lines Book 3 will pick up when that leaves off, with the first chapters of that story coincident with the last of Breaking Barriers.

Meanwhile I still have finish the Hampton's Hiatus story, a few more chapters to post there, plus more stories set in Boston that lead up to Maura and Jane relocating to Los Angeles.

Then there are still the Intersecting Lines: Drabbles and Intersecting Lines: Possession and Passion stories to continue.

Over at Once Upon A Time I still have a number of chapters of the Dark series to post, plus a follow up short story. Then there are a few Arrow-verse story's that are bouncing round my head demanding to be finished too.

So as you can see, there's plenty to come, which brings me to the most important part of this message.

I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to read my works, be it in the Rizzles-verse, OUAT, Arrow-verse or a one shot, thank you so much for sharing your precious time with me while you're reading my stuff.

In particular I'd like to take a moment to specifically thank those of you who follow me as a writer, the thought that you are prepared to let me fill your inbox with all the random scribbling's I make, regardless of the genre, fills me with a sense of gratitude and is extremely humbling.

Thank you.

**Intersecting Lines Book 2**

**95 Wrap up with Pope**

Brenda's viewpoint

Pope's office reeked of compromise, of deals done and secrets kept. Every time I walk in here I realise more and more that the Chief's job wasn't ever meant for me, I just don't have the mindset to keep all those balls in the air, it'd be way too easy to lose track of what was true, what were lies and what was political expediency, let alone separating them from each other.

No, Will Pope could have it, the fancy office, the huge salary and all its lies and secrets with my blessing. Mind you that didn't mean that he didn't have his uses, nor was I averse to manipulating him to get what I wanted, not when it was something important, like today.

Sharon and I were sitting in the chairs in front of his desk as he sat back, warily watching us over his steepled fingers like we were some kind of unpredictable cats, not sure if we were going to purr or claw him. Finally he broke the slightly uncomfortable silence.

"What new do we have on the Witsec case?" It was what people had taken to calling the investigation, mostly after the media had picked up on it and started using that phrase. I handled that one.

"Thanks to your representations with Director Martinez we've started to get a trickle of information back via Agent Romanov from the interrogations of Hernandez" I shrugged, trying not to show my frustration. "They're apparently more interested in what he knows about the Sinaloa Cartel's hierarchy than what was done here, the little we have on that seems to come in fits and starts" Pope frowned, obviously unimpressed.

"Should I have another chat to Director Martinez?" I smiled, it never hurt to keep Pope feeling important, it made him easier to handle and kept him off our backs.

"That would be appreciated Will, lord knows we've had precious little useful info up to now" He nodded once.

"I'll call him later today" Sharon and I exchanged a glance, hopefully it wouldn't come down to Pope, Ana had invited Martinez and his wife over for dinner this weekend, given her cooking most people jumped at the chance to dine with them. She and Natalie were going to use the chance to gently suggest that we should get some one on one time with Hernandez to ask some pertinent questions. It was a long shot but it couldn't hurt to give it a go. Pope meanwhile was looking reflective.

"Hopefully we'll get that sort out. Unfortunately my other major problem isn't going to get sorted anytime soon" at our enquiring looks he shook his head and slumped back in his chair a little. "I still have to deal with Taylor, after all that's happened he's a liability to the department" I smirked, just a little but totally justified I thought, as Sharon spoke quietly, her voice dry as dust.

"That could hardly be described as a new development" She waved a hand as if brushing something off. "In fact I would suggest that he has been one for many years" Pope nodded slowly as he replied.

"I know neither of you particularly like the man..." I couldn't let that slide.

"You've seemed to develop a new taste in understatement Will, I despise the man, if it is not his mysogenistic, chauvenistic attitude..." Sharing broke in, finishing the sentance.

"It is his ongoing personal threats, to my knowledge he has threatened Doctor Isles, Miss Dearing, Agent Romanov and Detective Rizzoli..." I jumped back in.

"That's on top of his threats to both the Commander's and my wellbeing..." Pope held up his hands in a placating gesture.

"I completely understand where you are all coming from, I don't like the man either but until I can get him for something the union won't be able to protect him from my hands are tied" I exchanged a skeptical glance with Sharon, seeing the same mix of disgust and contempt I was feeling at Will's spineless behavior. Oblivious to our reactions he was still pushing on. "The situation was already a mess, even back before someone in Judge McKinnon's office leaked the details of her investigation to the media, now he's a dead man walking"

At that Sharon and I didn't dare exchange a glance, not in front of Will, but I knew we both felt the same sense of deep dark satisfaction. The individual paybacks we'd arranged for Taylor had worked out better than we'd hoped, Taylor's reputation, not great to start with was now in ruins and with a bit of luck and any justice in the world he'd be too busy trying to stay out of trouble to bother any of us anytime soon. Unable to help myself I risked a small comment.

"Quite frankly it couldn't have happened to a more deserving individual" Pope frowned at me as he spoke.

"I know you don't like the man, but his career's pretty much dead-ended" He shook his head before continuing. "He's not actually been found guilty of any crimes so I can't fire him, he's already said he won't retire so I have to find somewhere else for him, somewhere he's stashed out of sight and won't be able to do too much damage" Sharon spoke up quietly.

"Commander Taylor is simpy reaping what he sowed, he was a poor leader and his tenure as head of Robbery / Homicide has been a disaster" Pope scowled, he didn't like being reminded that he'd put Taylor there in the first place when Commander Di Francesco had retired. Instead of facing up to his mistake he changed the subject; making me want to roll my eyes, that was so him, always had been, Will didn't like looking at ugly realities, he never had, he was a typical politician, hoping that people wouldn't remember what he'd previously said when it was no longer politically expedient for him to be associated with his previous position, this was more of the same. He glanced at her, then me before replying.

"You do realise that this episode has destroyed the integrity of Robbery / Homicide?" I raised an eyebrow, leaving it to Sharon to reply, her voice calm, she normally wasn't one for rubbing someone's nose in their own messes but that didn't mean she wasn't going to speak plainly.

"That suggests that they had any to start with, a questionable assumption at best in light of what's transpired" I could see the half frown on Pope's features, he wasn't sure where this was going, something that made a political animal like Pope uneasy, uncertainty worried Will, it suggested things outside his control, which signified threats and dangers to his personal little multi-story house of cards…

"I'll have to transfer Taylor too, god knows where" I nodded and hid a smile, partly at his words and partly at the slight whine in his voice. Poor Will, trying to work out how to spin this so the Mayor's office and the media wouldn't crucify him, not that I was going to help him off that particular hook. He'd fought and schemed and connived to get this job; who was I to deny him the myriad of pleasures that came with it? Instead I leaned back and spoke.

"His position at Robbery / Homicide is completely untenable, keeping him there would suggest that the department condones his actions" Pope frowned, his voice a trifle tetchy.

"I am more than aware of how it appears Chief, god knows the media is making that assertion more and more loudly with each passing day" I smiled as Sharon spoke, her voice calm and clear.

"Given you say he will not retire, perhaps a transfer to somewhere that's a more appropriate fit for his expertise?" Pope's eyebrow lifted in skeptical surprise.

"And let me guess, you have just the place?" I smiled even wider as she gave a nod and replied.

"I understand that there's a pressing need for someone to run Valley's Traffic Bureau" I didn't miss the slight widening of Pope's eyes, that had been the role that Taylor and Will's predecessor Chief Delk had planned to dump Will in after Delk had been appointed to the Chief's role. Only Delk's sudden fatal stroke had prevented that plan from happening, leaving the path clear for Pope to ascend to the Chief's job. There was a quiet silence as all three of us swapped looks before Pope smiled quietly.

"Point taken; there is a certain karmic justice there however as a Commander he's too senior for the role and I don't yet have sufficiant cause to demote him, not without having the union all over me" I smothered a snort, Will didn't want to actually have to fight to get something done, instead hoping to find a way to get what he wanted without upsetting anyone important, he was as transparent as glass. "Of course, if any of the investigations into Robbery / Homicide find anything..." He trailed off, staring at his desk blotter, obviously hoping that would happen and he'd have a reason to dump Taylor without getting dragged into a fight over it.

Now I normally don't go out of my way to help Will out of his self-generated messes but in this case I wanted something so I metaphorically held my nose and pushed on. I glanced at Sharon as she looked back, then cleared my throat, causing Will to look up at me. "Yes?"

"Perhaps there is a position that you could create for the Commander" I smiled. "One that makes good use of the few talents he actually has"

"Presuming he has any" I glanced over at Sharon's words, seeing the dry smile there and fighting hard not to smile back as Will frowned, suspicion writ large on his face before he spoke carefully.

'And what exactly are you suggesting Chief?" I smiled, all false charm and cheer.

"Perhaps the Commander might be best suited in a new role, LAPD liaison officer..." I saw Will's eyes narrow as I continued. "To the ASPCA" His eyebrows shot up as I continued. "After all LAPD officers find many of the animals the ASPCA take in, plus we do get some of our K9 puppies from them, perhaps a permanent liaison officer would be appropriate" Sharon's dry comment dropped before Will could speak.

"Given Commander Taylor's all-too-apparent prediliction for throwing the term 'bitch' about, I think surrounding him with them seems rather...appropriate wouldn't you say?" Seeing Will about to say something I jumped in, throwing a gently reproving glance her way before continuing.

"It would also leave the good Commander with plenty of opportunity to attend the numerous ongoing inquiries and investigations into the actions of the Robbery / Homicide detectives formerly under his command" Will sat there holding himself very still, before he started nodding slowly and finally spoke.

"It would that" We were silent for a little longer, letting the matter stew for a moment as Will thought it over, looking at it from all angles looking for tricks and traps, obviously he found none as he smiled a little too happily to himself before I finally broke the silence and spoke.

"Do you have any idea who you might have in mind to take over Robbery / Homicide?" Pope frowned at me, as I worked hard to keep my face impassive.

"I have no idea, I'm still working on the fact that the entire division will have to be reconstituted from the ground up" I nodded, smiling sympathetically then spoke up.

"Y'know Will, part of the problem was that Taylor didn't believe in running things by the rules and that without rules there's only chaos" I got an amused look from Sharon, while Will couldn't resist a snippy comment.

"As you of all people would be all too aware" I smiled and nodded, acknowledging his point, after all there was no use in pissing him any further off given he had something I wanted.

"Point taken, what you need though is someone who can rebuild the division and who'll run it by the book, someone everyone understands does things the right way with no argument so there'll be no doubt in anyone's mind that things are above board" I smiled particularly nicely as Pope gave me a strange look, before I turned to look at Sharon.

Pope looked at me for a moment more, before his gaze followed mine to look at Sharon as well. I looked at her there, all gorgeous and calm and composed, or so it seemed, I could tell though that she wasn't quite as calm as she looked, little things that told me so much, the way she held her hands very still, the slight widening of her eyes, all the little tells I'd come to know so well. I smiled as she looked between Will and me, taking in his small smile as well. Sharon sat there for a good fifteen seconds before a slow, languorous smile appeared.

"Perhaps it's time for a new challenge, after all it's been a year of change" At that truth we all nodded, that it had. "I'd need your approval to restaff Robbery / Homicide with new detectives from outside the division while the current people need to have a fresh start away from there, otherwise they'll be tainted and Robbery / Homicide along with them" Will nodded slowly, sighing gently before replying.

"I'm not sure where you're going to get the people though, especially after this, I mean where are you going to get people in a hurry to join a division that's been through the wringer?" At that I smiled, this gave me the chance to steer things the way I wanted.

"I could suggest a number of eminently qualified Detectives and Sergeants who are well overdue for the chance to be promoted" At his questioning look I smiled. "I can think of several from Major Crimes and I'm pretty sure that Commander Raydor could think of several from FID who should have the chance to seek promotion" For a moment I thought Pope had choked on something, the way he was coughing and spluttering an all. Finally he calmed down enough to get a coherent sentence out.

"You'd be willing to lose some of your team to Robbery / Homicide?" I nodded slowly.

"They deserve the chance for promotion, for a chance to move into more senior roles, lord knows Miss Morrell's been onto me about this for a while now" He sat back; I could see the wariness in his eyes as he looked between us; I could see Sharon watching me through narrowed eyes as well. I hadn't had a chance to fully talk all of this particular part through with her but this way I got to have some of my people rewarded for their hard work and dedication, plus they'd be working with Sharon, who'd need all the help she could get in fixing up Robbery / Homicide's mess. Pope was silent for at least thirty seconds, watching us both, as I struggled to remain impassive. Finally he spoke, his voice dry.

"Exactly who do you have in mind?" I leaned forward a bit, counting names off on my fingers as I spoke.

"Gabriel and Sanchez; they deserve to take the Lieutenant and Sergeant's exams, in fact well overdue to do so, plus Robbery Homicide will need good, experienced people if they're going to turn things around" I shrugged. "Mike Tao's been sounded out before about a Captain's slot in SIS, maybe it's time" He nodded slowly, before turning to look at Sharon who had become very still, his voice if anything even dryer.

"What about you Commander? Any staffing solutions you'd care to make?" Sharon nodded slowly then leaned forward in the chair.

"I would suggest Lieutenant Elliot would be a worthy person to step up to Captain and run FID, subject to him passing the exam" She shrugged quietly. "He's certainly good enough and I doubt there will be much competition for that particular slot. I'd also suggest that Detective Kwang should probably take the Sergeant's exam, with an eye on a potential move to Robbery Homicide, while Mark Rosenberg should be considered for the Sargeant's exam and a step up in FID" She got a hard look from Pope but remained calm under his scrutiny before he looked across at me and spoke, his voice laden with suspicion.

"I don't suppose there's anything else you two might want?" I didn't really want to push it but I looked across to Sharon and caught her eye, before she nodded almost imperceptibly. Turning back to Will I smiled as innocently as I could while Sharon spoke.

"Perhaps we should talk to HR, see who might have applied for a transfer and see if they can find some people to fill out the holes in Major Crimes, Robbery / Homicide and Force Investigation" Pope's look was laden with pure scepticism, as was his voice.

"Sorry Commander, no offence intended but you do have something of a reputation as a difficult and at times demanding boss, I'm not sure if too many people will want to move into a role under you. Same with people wanting to go to Major Crimes, Chief Johnson also has an… interesting reputation within the department as well" I looked across at Sharon to see her wearing an enigmatic, Mona Lisa-ish smile, one I tried to mirror as I nodded as I replied.

"Perhaps we can see what HR has to say" Pope looked us over, before shrugging.

"Well, if anyone actually does ask to move into your divisions, I'll sign off on the transfers" He looked us both in the eye, scepticism evident in both his face and voice. "You really think many people will want to?" Sharon and I exchanged another look before she shrugged again.

"We'll have to see" Pope regarded us for a moment over steepled fingers then spoke.

"Very well, we'll see what happens then" He sat up and leaned his elbows on his desk. "Now get out of here before you sign me up to anything else" I should have left it, but I had to ask.

"How soon will the transfers, if any, come though?" Pope looked up at me and sighed.

"Soon, first I have the outstanding matter of a new liaison position to create and fill" I stood as Sharon nodded.

"Then we'll leave you to it Chief" He nodded.

"Thank you" Sharon and I smiled politely.

"Chief Pope"

"Will" I went to open the door and hold it for Sharon, when his voice came to us.

"Oh Commander?" We both stopped and looked back to see him looking up at us. "Congratulations on the new role and good luck, I think you'll need it" We both nodded before turning and walking out, passing through Belinda's office and out into the corridor, holding in our grins until we were safely out of sight.

Finally we stood there, waiting for an elevator as Sharon carefully looked around, making sure no one was standing close.

"That went about as well as we could have hoped" I smiled back at her.

"Better really. Do you have your list of people ready to call" She nodded once.

"Sitting in my top drawer, what about you?" I returned her nod as I replied.

"Sitting under the keyboard, just waiting to go" Sharon nodded once more.

"We'll need to brief our people in first" I thought about it for a moment then asked the question.

"Should we do it separately or together?" She pondered it as the elevator arrived and we entered. We pushed the buttons for our respective floors, which must have helped her come to a decision.

"I think separately would be best, they deserve to hear it from us amongst their friends, not in front of strangers" I smiled; I'd been thinking much the same.

"Couldn't agree more sweetie" We stopped at my floor. There was no one else in there with us or waiting for the elevator so I leaned in for a quick kiss, one she happily deepened, so much so that I had to press the door open button to hold the floor. "Give me a call when you're done, ok?" Sharon nodded and stepped back, looking up at me, her voice soft.

"Love you Brenda Leigh" I stepped backwards out and smiled as the doors started to close.

"Love you too Sharon" I found myself standing there contemplating the closed doors, before taking a deep breath, the next few minutes weren't going to be easy, even though it was for the best, it still didn't make it any easier. I stood there for a bit, working out what I had to say, how do you tell people you really like, your friends, that it's time for them to move on, it'd be a bit like 'the talk' with a boyfriend, not easy no matter how much it was needed.

Finally I turned and walked towards the squad room, still not exactly sure what I was going to say, but I knew somehow I'd muddle through.


End file.
